President Charges ‘Inaction,’ ‘Bickering’ by Congress on Anti-Crime, Transit Bills : Politics: Bush follows through on threat to use birthday speech to attack Democrats for not meeting his 100-day deadline.

President Bush, hitting back at Democrats’ charges that he has neglected the nation’s domestic problems, complained Wednesday that passage of the Administration’s anti-crime and transportation bills has been stymied by congressional “inaction” and “bickering.”

In a highly partisan speech that sounded like the opening salvo of a reelection campaign, Bush attacked the Democratic-controlled Congress for failing to meet the 100-day deadline that he had set for enactment of the two bills.

Bush, who earlier was accused by Democratic leaders of arbitrarily setting the deadline for political purposes, said that he was “disappointed but not surprised” that the bills will not have been passed by Friday, when the deadline falls.

Anticipating the President’s attack, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) had accused Bush of “a new low in political cynicism” for criticizing congressional inaction on the transportation bill when a Republican senator, John W. Warner of Virginia, has been blocking action on the measure for days in a dispute over allocation of highway funds to states.

The President’s speech, delivered before about 2,200 guests, contained no new proposals for dealing with the nation’s pressing domestic problems but rather was sprinkled with anecdotes about individual successes recorded under his Points of Light program recognizing voluntary community action.

The major television networks decided not to provide live coverage of the speech after the White House announced that there would be no new proposals and it became apparent that the speech would be a partisan address.

Bush, saying that he had not invited his guests to “sit through a litany of programs and policies,” declared: “The good news is that the free market is now applying its resources and know-how to our social problems.”

Many companies are leaders of “a revolution in American education,” partners with the government in the Administration’s education program, “America 2000 Strategy,” Bush said. “Others are crusaders for environmental protection, while still others are innovators from health care to child care.”

Until recently, Democrats have been reluctant to attack Bush while he has basked in the glow of public opinion ratings in the high 70% area. But they began a concerted attack before the President’s speech, with House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) blasting Bush’s speech as a “photo opportunity in Mr. Bush’s Polaroid presidency.”

“On crime, Mr. President,” Gephardt said, “we share your concern. Under 11 years of Republican rule, violent crime is up 22%, rape is up 13% and theft is up 10%.” Under the Ronald Reagan and Bush administrations, he said: “Americans feel less secure in their homes; that’s exactly what we need, a good crime bill--not a fast crime bill or a Bush crime bill, but an effective crime bill.”

Bush, saying that 98 days ago he asked Congress to “tackle the urgent problems on the home front with the same energy we dedicated to tackling the crisis on the battlefront,” argued that he had spelled out an ambitious domestic agenda “founded upon economic growth, investing in our future and increasing opportunity for all Americans.”

The President said that he sent Congress literally hundreds of legislative proposals, and then specifically asked that Congress pass just two laws in 100 days--the anti-crime bill and the transportation bill.

“I thought a hundred days was pretty reasonable,” he said.

Bush said that the American people don’t understand why the bills haven’t passed and “don’t understand the complications, the inaction, the bickering--particularly when so many do understand what it takes to solve problems in their own neighborhoods: commitment, compassion and courage.”

The President said that he would keep working with Congress--”my hand remains extended--I’ll keep bringing them along,” he added. “But we cannot let Congress discourage or deter us from meeting our responsibilities.”

He called the United States “indisputably the world’s most powerful force for freedom and economic growth” but acknowledged that the nation also has problems of “the poor and the homeless, the hungry and the hopeless, many unable to read and write . . . kids dragged down by drugs . . . shattered families, the teen-age mothers struggling to cope.”

However, he insisted that “government and the market, joined with Points of Light, will overwhelm our social problems.” And he said that all citizens and institutions “have the duty to lead.”

Bush’s speech, delivered on the south lawn with the Washington Monument as a backdrop, coincided with his 67th birthday. His audience included a broad section of members of Congress, local elected officials, educators, law officers, United Way executives and some recent graduates of an adult high school in Seaford, Del.

Earlier Wednesday, Bush was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by a group of Republican senators.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Bush had asked that there be no celebration, but the senators had a little one anyway.

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), gave Bush a pin, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas came up with a key chain and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) brought a check for the White House preservation fund.