Signs Point to ‘Good Recovery,’ Bush Says : Economy: President cites low inflation and interest rates and declining personal debt. He again blames Congress for sluggish growth.
President Bush acknowledged Tuesday that “the economy remains sluggish,” but he said that its fundamental underpinnings--low inflation, low interest rates, declining personal debt and low inventories--all point “to a good recovery.”
As he has almost daily for several weeks, the President sought to restore consumer confidence as the nation enters a holiday shopping season crucial to its retailers--and an election season crucial to the President.
He insisted that any obstacles to recovery are the fault of Congress.
“While Americans demand action, it remains business as usual up on Capitol Hill. And business as usual can only hurt people who want to work or want to move on into better jobs,” Bush said in a speech televised via satellite to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Assn., which was meeting in Boca Raton, Fla.
With the stock market showing extreme volatility because of investors’ nervousness and the government’s economic statistics providing little sign of encouragement, Bush has sought to fend off criticism with daily complaints that the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate are standing in the way of his program.
However, his comments did little to calm the jittery market. By the end of the day, the closely watched Dow Jones industrial average of 30 leading stocks had tumbled 41.15 points to 2,931.57, wiping out a gain of 29 points on Monday after Friday’s 120-point drop.
The White House concern about the market was evident Tuesday morning when Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater reported on its moment by moment gyrations.
Bush told the publishers: “There are a number of steps we can take to get our economy booming again and steps that, in my judgment, Congress should have taken long ago when I proposed them. These include--and I know I sound like a broken record to some--capital gains tax cuts, research and development tax credits, expanded IRAs, comprehensive banking reform legislation, international trade liberalization and a job-intensive, sound transportation bill. And this is just part of the litany.”
Throughout the autumn, the lack of improvement in the economy has become a central theme of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. The result has been to put the White House on the defensive, amid complaints from Bush’s advisers and political allies beyond his immediate circle that he is at risk of losing an incumbent’s initiative.
Numerous public opinion polls have documented a sharp drop in his approval ratings, and the popularity boost he received as a result of the Persian Gulf War has been dissipated.
Fitzwater acknowledged that the pounding Bush is taking from the six declared Democratic presidential candidates and from New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who has not announced his intentions for the coming campaign, is forcing Bush to move up his personal political timetable.
The President has not formally declared his candidacy. Nor has he established a formal campaign operation. But Fitzwater said that the announcement of a campaign organization, which had not been expected until January, “probably now will come before the end of the year.”
“A month or two ago, we didn’t have any Democratic candidates against us. It looked like we could hold off a little longer. Now, we have four or five out there taking shots every day--six, whatever. It would help to get an organization in place and start organizing themes and so forth,” he said.
And Bush suggested Tuesday, as others have earlier, that in December and January--in the weeks just before the first voting in the primary campaign--he will aggressively “take my case for the growth initiatives . . . to the American people to help instill a sense of confidence.”
“You’re going to see the President speaking out on the status of the economy and the things that we’ve been trying to do, particularly his economic program,” Fitzwater said.
Bush also addressed economic issues during a speech at a private Republican Party fund-raising luncheon, according to a White House text.
“No one knows better than I the state of that economy,” he said.
Speaking to the newspaper executives, Bush said:
“I’m concerned about the people that are hurting and, although we technically have pulled out of recession on a national basis and although we enjoyed a very modest economic growth in the third quarter, in recent months many people still feel the pinch of an economy that isn’t growing as it should. No honest observer can tell you that things are great. They’re not. And when people are hurting, I worry about it.”
But he said that “we ought to get it in perspective. Inflation is down. Interest rates are way down. Personal debt is down. Inventories are down. Quality is up. Exports are up. But, in spite of these very encouraging signs--very encouraging fundamentals--the economy remains sluggish.
“The American people want less talk and more action,” he said, and he pledged “to try to work with Congress.”
The task of building support for his program, he said, “won’t be easy, for 1992 is just over the horizon and politics will play an undue part in the debate.”
In remarks tailored to his audience, he attacked crime as a “hidden tax” and said to the publishers: “You still get pinched by everyone from the newspaper-box wrecker to the person who tries to mess up multimillion-dollar printing presses.”
