President Bush to visit Cisco

President George W. Bush is heading to Northern California this weekend where he's expected to pitch his ideas for improving the country's technological competitiveness and developing new fuel options.

First stop on Friday is Silicon Valley, where the president will attend an event at the campus of tech giant, Cisco Systems in San Jose. The president is expected to pitch the American Competitiveness Initiative, a proposal which would double government funding for basic research in the physical sciences.

If Congress approves the initiative, the government will pay for thousands of new science and math teachers to be trained. The initiative would also extend a popular tax credit to businesses investing in research and development. The proposal will likely cost tax payers in the neighborhood of $136 billion over 10 years.

On Saturday, President Bush will head to West Sacramento where he will tour the California Fuel Cell Partnership. Bush mentioned hydrogen fuel cell cars in his State of the Union address in January, calling for more research to be done to make better batteries for hybrid and electric cars and hydrogen vehicles.

Even though fuel-cell vehicles are still decades away from becoming reality, Bush will likely use the opportunity to talk about what the government is doing to stem rising gas prices.