Bush Plans TV Speech on Deficit : Budget: The President will address the nation tonight at 6. He will try to build support for the bipartisan package.

President Bush said today he will give a televised address to the nation at 6 p.m. PDT today to press his case for a deficit-cutting package.

Bush announced the speech at a meeting with a group of business leaders as the White House launched a major effort to sell the bipartisan package unveiled Sunday.

Earlier, he met with a group of skeptical and undecided Republican House members. Some participants at the meeting said several lawmakers urged Bush to give a televised address.

“This budget agreement is our last best chance to get the federal budget deficit under control,” Bush told the business leaders. “You can pick the package apart, but you cannot realistically put a better package together.”

Bush said it is important for “Congress to act and act soon on this vital legislation.

“I don’t want to sound sanctimonious about this, but I was elected to govern.”

The White House said Bush’s speech to the nation will last about 10 minutes.

Although Bush campaigned against new taxes and for a lower capital gains tax rate, he said that “the philosophy I was elected on runs out of gas in terms of votes in the United States Congress.”

Earlier, lawmakers who met with the President said that deep divisions remain in Congress on the measure.

Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.) said Bush had not changed his mind and that he still is likely to vote against the package.

But Rep. E. Thomas Coleman (R-Mo.) said he was persuaded by the President to support the package. “It’s the only ballgame in town,” he said. “If this goes down, you’re going to see chaos,” he said.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said some Republicans up for reelection told the President that supporting the package “will be tough. But they promised to consider it.”

“It has opposition,” he conceded. “We need time to work it.”

Fitzwater said that for all Americans, the proposed agreement “is paying the bills. And paying the bills is never fun.”

Fitzwater earlier said that Bush would make a strong pitch for the bipartisan budget accord.

“He’s going to be twisting arms and cajoling and telling people that if you are not supportive of this, we ask you to take another look and think anew,” Fitzwater said.

In its two-day life span, the plan has drawn barbs from lawmakers--Democrats and Republicans--wary of voting for a record amount of tax increases and spending cuts in an election year.

Fitzwater said Bush also planned to give speeches around the country in the coming weeks.

“He’ll be all over the place,” Fitzwater said.