Confident Bush Details Deficit Proposal

His campaign fired up by a convincing victory in New Hampshire, Vice President George Bush on Thursday touted his deficit reduction plans and foreign policy experience as he launched an assault on the Super Tuesday states that next month will deliver a third of the Republican convention’s delegates.

Bush kicked off a 12-day Southern swing with appearances in the Missouri Ozarks and capped the day with a rally in Dallas.

“Our campaign is alive and well and charging forward,” he proclaimed to 2,500 supporters gathered at Missouri Southern State College here.

“I am here today to ask for your support. Whoever wins Super Tuesday will win the presidency of the United States . . . “

More Forceful Approach

The trip, scheduled to include stops in most of the states that will elect 800 delegates March 8, highlighted a more forceful approach and a visibly more confident Bush.

Unlike the final scrappy days before the New Hampshire primary, Bush did not take on his chief opponent, Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, by name but he did issue a few backdoor jabs.

“The question is the issues,” he said in Dallas, where several hundred supporters gathered in a hotel atrium to welcome him. “Who best to lead the United States of America? Leave aside the one-liners. Leave aside who has the best gimmick out there.”

Dole, of course, is well-known for his biting and frequently effective wit, and Bush often describes Dole’s deficit-cutting plan as a gimmick.

Emphasizes Deficit Plan

The centerpiece of Bush’s Thursday message was his own deficit plan, first unveiled haphazardly in New Hampshire as the vice president scrambled to beat back Dole’s post-Iowa caucuses surge.

Bush favors a four-year freeze on the “bottom line” or overall budget. Within the budget, however, specific programs could be cut back or increased. The vice president has specifically advocated increases in AIDS research and education.

Bush’s plan would allow for a 4% inflationary increase. It would balance the budget by 1993 if federal revenues grew at 5% to 8% on a gross national product growth of 2.8% annually. Bush spokesman Peter Teeley said those figures are consistent with recent economic trends.

Dole’s plan, in contrast, would freeze spending for all programs except those impacting the poor and would allow for a 2% inflation increase.

Belittles Proposal

Bush acknowledged that Dole’s plan, announced well before the vice president’s, has won support, but he belittled it as inflexible.

“If you freeze the budget across the board you freeze in some outrageous waste, outrageous nonsense--studies of the wildflower and research into the Belgian endive,” he said.

As he did in New Hampshire last week, Bush also boasted to voters Thursday about the Reagan Administration’s signing of an intermediate nuclear weapons treaty with the Soviet Union, and said he alone of all the presidential candidates has had “hands-on foreign affairs leadership experience.”

In the wake of the New Hampshire victory, Bush’s approach appeared to have changed markedly. His campaign speech, often rocky, sounded more focused, and he never passed up a chance to ask voters to support him. In New Hampshire last week, he frequently bade farewell to groups without even asking them to vote.

Adopts New Strategy

The Southern strategy itself will be different, as Bush himself acknowledged to the Joplin audience when he asked them to spread the word about his appearance. New Hampshire and Iowa--sites of the first two electoral tests--stood alone on the political calendar, allowing candidates to set up shop and travel the states with abandon.

The Super Tuesday contest involves 17 GOP simultaneous elections in the South and in the North, demanding more travel time and less opportunity to meet voters personally. Campaign manager Lee Atwater said Bush will depend more on television advertising than he did in the earlier races.

If the first day of the Super Tuesday swing was any indication, the pressures of travel could also force Bush closer to the more regimented campaign he waged in Iowa and away from the seat-of-the-pants operation seen in the final days in New Hampshire.

But the close-to-the-people antics that found favor in New Hampshire have not completely vanished: Bush’s first stop in Missouri was at Sto’s Truck & Auto Plaza, an upscale truck stop where he bought coffee, greeted surprised diners and handed owner Tom Holliday a vice presidential tie tack.

“If your old lady makes you wear a tie, slide that on,” the vice president suggested.