Irony attends budget pep talk

President Bush promoted his newly released federal budget Tuesday at a company that recently settled a class-action lawsuit over alleged price-fixing and antitrust violations.

Bush used his visit to Micron Technology Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer, to argue that Congress should look to private sector companies as examples of responsible budgeting. His spending plan for next year forecasts a balanced federal budget by 2012.

“I appreciate very much the fact that companies like Micron actually have a budget. It’s a concept that the government needs to get used to too,” the president said.

Bush called Micron an “innovative company” that is made up of “smart people back there making the products that people want.”

In January, Micron settled a class-action lawsuit built on accusations that it had engaged in price-fixing and had violated antitrust laws, along with the other makers of dynamic random-access memory chips, or DRAM.

Bush made no reference to the lawsuit, which was filed after the Justice Department launched an investigation of the company’s pricing policies in 2002. The suit was one of several legal actions facing the company that were brought by computer manufacturers, consumers and states.

At the Micron plant, in a suburb about 30 miles west of the White House, Bush promoted the $2.9-trillion budget for 2008 that he submitted to Congress on Monday.

“By keeping taxes low and being wise about how we spend your money, we actually achieve balance in the budget,” he said. “This budget can work if Congress resists the temptation to raise your taxes.”

The White House said it was aware of Micron’s former legal difficulty before Bush’s visit.

“From what we could see, they followed all the procedures in dealing with the Department of Justice and cooperated as required,” said Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto.

A Micron spokesman said the company, which is based in Boise, Idaho, had cooperated with the department’s probe, a step that he said protected it from the risk of criminal penalty.

james.gerstenzang@

latimes.com