‘Working Americans’ to Tackle Economy

A diverse collection of chief executives, labor leaders, small-business owners and homemakers will offer their ideas today on how to revive the slumping economy at a forum billed as a listening session for the Bush administration.

But as the White House on Monday outlined the meeting’s format, it was unclear just how much of a contribution the 240 participants from 40 states--described as the “backbone of our economy”--will be able to make to the debate or to a genuine search for fresh attempts to cure the economy.

The half-day forum begins with eight concurrent, 90-minute sessions, chaired by Cabinet officers or other senior administration officials and attended by about 30 people each.

The topics: economic recovery and job creation, corporate responsibility, small investors and retirement security, small business and smarter regulation, education and workers, trade, technology and innovation, and health-care security.

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney each will drop in on four sessions--and deliver remarks. (Bush is to attend four, and Cheney another group of four.)

But before any of the 30 “panel participants” can open a dialogue, the sessions’ chairs also will make remarks--as well as the guest speakers. Five sessions have two chairs while a sixth has two guest speakers.

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Plenary Session

These sessions will be followed by an hourlong plenary session and then a closing luncheon. Bush and Cheney are scheduled to greet the participants at the lunch but will not stay for the meal, officials said.

When asked whether the forum will allow a vigorous, free-flowing discussion, White House Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan replied: “Absolutely.”

Altogether, “the forum will include at least 14 hours of detailed policy discussions,” McClellan noted.

The White House found itself on the defensive for having invited some big Republican donors but no Democratic policymakers, such as House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who in January called for an economic summit.

Although Bush and the White House have emphasized the diversity of the forum’s participants, attention has focused on one subset: the CEOs of companies that have donated generously to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group.

These include the heads of at least seven companies whose “soft money” campaign donations in recent years have largely or exclusively gone to Republicans: Charles Schwab & Co., Caterpillar, Cisco Systems Inc., Verizon Communications, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., International Paper Co. and Pfizer Inc.

But other attendees, such as Douglas J. McCarron, the general president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, have backed Democrats, including Al Gore.

Also among the participants are economists who worked for former President Bush, father of the incumbent.

These include Michael Boskin, now a Stanford University professor; and Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University professor.

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‘A Diversity of Views’

One influential Democrat listed as a participant was Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and CEO who served as budget director under President Clinton.

McClellan said that the forum’s participants represent “a diversity of views” and that Bush looks forward to hearing from “people on the front lines of the American economy.”

The 240 “working Americans” including a handful from California, were selected by the White House, with input from Bush’s Cabinet, McClellan said.

He added that no political considerations were involved.

Most participants are paying their own way to Waco even though, given the official nature of the event, the government could have legally picked up their travel expenses, according to McClellan.

The forum will be held at Baylor University, about a half-hour drive from Bush’s 1,600-acre ranch near Crawford, where he is spending the month of August, mixing work with vacation.

The hastily arranged half-day forum is being staged in part to showcase Bush’s concern about the economy--and to shield him from voter anger over the economic downturn and the stock market declines that have reduced Americans’ net worth by about 20%.

As McClellan put it, parroting Bush’s own mantra of late: “The president focuses on our economy every day. And he’s going to remain concerned as long as there is one person who wants a job that cannot find a job.”

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‘More We Must Do’

Still, McClellan conceded, Bush today will propose no new initiatives--even though he acknowledged as recently as Saturday that “there is more we must do.”

Instead, Bush will renew his call on Congress to curb spending and to enact further measures to protect pensions.

As a way to underscore his concern about congressional spending that could worsen the budget deficit, Bush is likely to announce at the forum today that he will reject $5.1 billion in new spending approved by Congress, White House aides said late Monday.

But the president’s move could antagonize lawmakers because the spending package includes aid to Israel and Afghanistan, funds for airport security and health monitoring at the former World Trade Center site in New York City.

The money is part of a $28.9-billion emergency spending package that Bush signed on Aug. 2 and would be allocated if the president authorized the disbursement by Sept. 1, or 30 days after the bill’s signing.

Late last week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) wrote Bush, urging him to authorize the spending--and even offered to bring with her to Bush’s Texas ranch a contingent of New York City first responders to personally make the case. But Bush did not take her up on her offer.

He also intends to demand swift congressional passage of his controversial energy bill and a terrorism insurance bill that he believes would encourage private construction projects to move forward by providing government aid in insuring commercial real-estate property against major loss from terrorist attacks.

Bush is likely to remind the public of several actions that he and Congress have taken to boost the economy, such as the $1.35-trillion tax cut, new authority for the president to more freely negotiate trade agreements and a tough corporate accountability bill designed to instill investor confidence.

McClellan said the president also will emphasize what he has repeatedly called the strong fundamentals of the economy: “strong productivity growth, rising real wages, low and stable inflation, low interest rates, low taxes.”

Among the forum’s California participants are Diana Hoffman, head of EnvironSystems), San Jose; Mario Rodriguez, head of Jonathan Grey & Associates, San Clemente; Bill Sharpe, chairman of Financial Engines, Los Altos; and Maria de Lourdes Sobrino of Vernon, whom Bush identified on Saturday as the owner of a successful Mexican food production firm.