Claims Criticism Is Unfair : Reagan Says He Left Little for Bush to Do

Former President Ronald Reagan told an audience of convention goers Sunday that President Bush has been treated unfairly--in part because his predecessor accomplished so much.

“George Bush has been a major part of everything we’ve done these last eight years. . . . It’s just a case of him not having anything startling to introduce so far,” Reagan, now a speaker-for-hire, said at one of the nation’s largest trade shows, the National Restaurant Assn. and Hotel and Motel Show.

Reagan said Bush’s problem is that so much was accomplished by the Reagan Administration that there were few areas that need shoring up right away. He added that because of this, Bush has received unfair treatment, presumably in the form of press reviews criticizing the Administration’s seeming lack of direction.

He said what Bush needs--and what he himself would be fighting for if he were still President--is a line-item veto on the budget and a constitutional rein on congressional spending, which Reagan maintains is the source of the deficit.

Reagan did not attempt to address the political upheaval in China or any other foreign policy issue but stuck to his anti-communist, pro-democracy posture in brief references to Panama and the Soviet Union.