Bush Economist Assails Clinton in O.C. : Economy: Michael J. Boskin tells nonpartisan Orange County Forum that the Democratic candidate is in over his head on strategy.

President George Bush’s chief economic adviser on Tuesday attacked Democrat Bill Clinton’s proposals to lead the nation out of recession, saying they will seriously damage an already fragile economy and cost taxpayers far more than Clinton claims.

In an apparent attempt to bolster Bush’s sagging support on the hottest issue of the campaign--the sputtering economy--Michael J. Boskin flew west to make speeches to California business leaders and the news media. The Bush/Quayle campaign financed the trip.

At a luncheon of the nonpartisan Orange County Forum, Boskin said Clinton’s economic policies will not stimulate enough job growth to drive the country out of recession, and that the cost of many of his proposals will far outstrip his plans for raising revenue.

In speaking with reporters after the speech, Boskin’s criticism of Clinton became more pointed. Boskin compared the Arkansas governor to a less-than-stellar economics student, saying his proposals were “the types of things you’d cringe at if a student in your economics class came up with; you’d wonder if they’d learned anything about supply and demand.”

Boskin’s comments came on the same day as more gloomy economic news emanated from Washington. The Commerce Department reported that its index of leading economic indicators fell 0.2% in August, the second decline in the last three months, and a key indicator of persistent weakness in the economy. The Conference Board, a private research group, reported that consumer confidence has fallen 22% since June.

But Boskin said that while he understands and shares the public’s concern about the U.S. economy, he believes that the country is on the road to recovery, however slow and steady. The key to that recovery is job growth, a goal that Boskin said Bush can better achieve than Clinton.

As the Bush Administration has repeatedly done, Boskin blamed Congress for thwarting Bush’s attempts to bring the nation out of the recession, such as the economic growth package he presented last January, tax changes, investment incentives and other measures.

Bush, he said, has the right ideas to renew the economy, including a very gradual reduction in government spending to curtail the deficit, incentives for business expansion that will provide jobs, and reforms to the American education system that will make U.S. students more competitive in a global job market.

Where Bush favors streamlining government to allow a “flexible, dynamic market economy” of growing businesses, Boskin said, Clinton would encumber business with more regulations and higher taxes, burdens that would lead to economic contraction.

Bill Podlich, chairman of the Orange County Clinton/Gore campaign, said he is tired of hearing Bush and his aides blame Congress for their own failures. Bush, he said, showed no leadership in striving to provide new jobs for recession-battered citizens.

“Bush hasn’t devoted any time and attention to what needs to be done from an economic standpoint in the United States,” Podlich said. “He only discovered that aspect of the country 90 days ago, and only because he was losing the election. It’s pretty clear he has been asleep at the switch.”

In his address to the generally well-heeled Orange County business people, Boskin zeroed in on Clinton’s proposal to tax the wealthiest residents, saying he “will have to go way down into the middle class” to find enough revenue to pay for his biggest proposals, like health-care reform.

“The entire range of his proposals to me bespeaks someone who is not very conversant with how a market economy operates,” Boskin told the Orange County Forum crowd of about 150.

As an example, Boskin cited Clinton’s backing of a higher fuel standard of 40 m.p.g. for American cars, a goal so unrealistic that it would be “a neutron bomb” that would destroy the domestic auto industry. Clinton recently has supported that mileage standard as a goal by the year 2000, not a requirement. Federal law current requires each American car maker’s fleet to average 27.5 miles per gallon.