Democrats Believe He Will Be More Effective Than Reagan : Coelho Sees Bush as Activist Working to Aid Homeless

Extending a pre-inaugural olive branch to George Bush, a leading Democrat in the House said Saturday that members of his party look forward to working with the Republican President-elect who they believe will be more effective than President Reagan in dealing with social problems such as homelessness.

“Democrats in Congress who have partisan differences with Mr. Bush look forward to working with him,” said Rep. Tony Coelho of Merced, the party’s whip. “We’re convinced George Bush will be an activist President, a doer.”

Coelho, delivering the Democrats’ response to Reagan’s weekly radio broadcast, stressed the fate of the nation’s homeless who are spending Christmas in the streets or huddled on hot-air grates.

“Ronald Reagan never understood this issue, but we’re convinced his successor will,” Coelho said.

Reagan Offers Reminder

In his radio address Saturday, Reagan wished the nation a merry Christmas, but added a reminder that in the United States “there are children--without homes, suffering from dire diseases--whose Christmases will be makeshift at best.”

But unlike Coelho, who called for rejuvenated government housing programs and for higher minimum wages so the working poor could afford a place to live, Reagan suggested that private charity can brighten the holiday of homeless children.

“The miracle of human generosity can and does transform the holidays for them,” Reagan said. “Programs like Toys for Tots, and literally tens of thousands of local initiatives are examples of this nation’s determination to give all children a sense of what the Christmas spirit is--and what it can mean for them.”

Coelho said most of the homeless “are not much different from you or me.”

“They are the elderly, the veterans, the physically disabled and the chronically ill,” he said. “They are the drug and alcohol dependent. They’re the migrant farm workers who harvest our food by day and have no place to sleep at night. But, in ever-increasing numbers, America’s homeless are working families with kids.

“We must recognize that homelessness is as much an income problem as it is a people problem,” Coelho said. “That means raising the minimum wage and the living standards of poor men and women who try to support families through work.”

Salutes Armenians

Reagan also saluted the people of Leninakan and Spitak, two cities in Soviet Armenia that were destroyed by the Dec. 7 earthquake there, and praised the international relief effort.

At the time of such tragedies, the President said, “the real differences that divide us and will continue to divide us fall away.”

“Closed borders open. Friends and enemies alike share the burden and hope to help. From Israel and war-torn Lebanon alike, supplies and aid have been sent to Soviet Armenia. And from the United States the response has been staggering,” he said. “Relief workers, tens of millions of dollars in private contributions, food, clothing, a cascade of good will and fellow feeling.

“Christmas is the time of the Prince of Peace, and we are therefore reminded yet again that our differences are not with common people, but with political systems,” the President said, in remarks that were recorded at the White House before he flew to Los Angeles, where he is spending a two-week Christmas vacation.

Speaks With Servicemen

From his new home in Bel-Air, Reagan spoke by telephone with five members of the armed forces, offering them Christmas greetings and telling them, according to the White House, “our Christmases are brighter and better because of what you’re doing on the frontiers of freedom--making it safer for everyone here at home.”

He spoke with Army Spec. Christopher M. Skezas, a transmitter operator from Bonita, Calif., who is assigned to the Multinational Force and Observer Detachment in the Sinai, Egypt. He also spoke with Airman 1st Class Richard E. Green, stationed at Shemya Air Force Base in Alaska, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Tidey, assigned to a Marine unit in Panama, Seaman Stephen L. Blocker, aboard the ship Oldendorf, based out of Yokosuka, Japan, and Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Marc Redshaw, a boatswain’s mate on a patrol boat in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Redshaw was born in England, and Reagan, noting that, referred to the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland on Wednesday and told him: “Both countries this weekend are saddened by a tragedy words can hardly describe.”

Norman Kempster reported from Washington and James Gerstenzang from Los Angeles.