Bush Upbeat, Sees Economy on Right Track
President Bush and his economic team Tuesday heard a litany of friendly advice from a cross-section of Americans on how to hasten an economic recovery, a task whose urgency was underscored by a day of more bad news about the nation’s struggling economy and stumbling stock market.
Throughout some 14 hours of discussions, one participant after another endorsed Bush’s economic priorities, from medical malpractice reform to the permanent abolition of the estate tax.
Meanwhile, Democrats around the country accused the White House of staging a public relations extravaganza to insulate Bush from voter anger over the economy.
“A made-for-TV economic forum isn’t going to solve our problems, or ease families’ concerns,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).
But Bush described the gathering as a chance for him to “get a report from what I call the front lines of the American economy.” And what he said he heard was: “Our economy has strengths that are greater than the challenges.”
His upbeat remarks came near the end of a half-day conference at Baylor University intended to highlight the president’s concern about the economy even while seeking to boost public and investor confidence.
Although the conference itself produced little news, the president received sustained applause when he announced that he is rejecting $5.1 billion in new spending approved by Congress.
The American Airlines announcement of 7,000 new layoffs was only one of several developments that intruded on the president’s conference.
In Washington, the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged, but warned that there is a growing risk of further weakening of the economy, and said that it might cut rates later.
Bush on Tuesday did not publicly mention the American Airlines layoffs, part of a massive restructuring that will cut its work force by 6%. But he was briefed on the news before he opened the forum.
“He’s obviously concerned,” said Deputy White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.
The forum’s final, plenary session featured a rare, side-by-side public appearance by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
For weeks now, the vice president has been virtually absent from the national spotlight amid the rash of corporate scandals over fraudulent accounting. The firm he headed before becoming vice president, Halliburton Co., is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for its accounting practices.
Although Cheney dropped in on four of the sessions, it was the president who attended the one on corporate responsibility. The vice president’s only comment was that he was “here to listen.”
The conference was applauded by most of the guests, chosen to represent what the White House described as representative of the work force.
They included about 240 Americans, from chief executives and homemakers to small-business owners, academics and a handful of labor leaders.
The forum “is very necessary, and I think, depending upon the extent that we’re listened to, it could be very, very useful,” said Jerry Levin, a small investor from Philadelphia.
Bush repeatedly told panelists that their ideas will be weighed, telling the “economic recovery and job creation” session: “Any recommendations that come out of this discussion will make it to my desk.”
For his part, the president promoted anew the key elements of his agenda, such as making permanent the $1.35-trillion tax cut, energy independence and regulatory relief.
Although he came with no fresh proposals, Bush delivered his remarks with considerably more fervor than usual.
He also expressed strong confidence in the economy’s fundamental strengths, declaring that, after three consecutive quarters of positive growth, “the trend is in the right direction.”
Bush added:
“Oh, I know the hurdles. But I’m confident in America.... There may be some tough times here in America, but this country has gone through tough times before and we’re going to do it again.”
The participants met in eight concurrent sessions to discuss topics such as trade, corporate responsibility, health care and retirement security. Senior administration officials, including Cabinet secretaries, presided. Bush and Cheney dropped in briefly on four sessions each before they jointly attended the plenary session.
Several times, Bush told the retirement security panel he would like to see simplified corporate financial statements and annual reports “so that people can understand what they’re looking at.”
Bush, who holds an MBA from Harvard, also called on business schools to emphasize corporate ethics. “Our business schools don’t want to teach right from wrong anymore,” he fumed.
The president also put some heft behind one of his prescriptions for economic recovery: that Congress must refrain from excessive spending.
Despite the widespread support among the participants for Bush policies, a few veered off the day’s agenda.
One woman, for example, called for a lifting of trade sanctions on Cuba--definitely not Bush administration policy. That prompted Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick to joke: “See, we have a whole range of opinions.”
Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist, said after the forum that he was struck by the “unanimity” of opinion between people from Main Street and Wall Street.
He also said Bush relished the opportunity to “engage in a dialogue with ordinary people.”
In a discussion about Medicare, Bush exchanged quips with Flora Green, a senior activist from Salt Lake City who poked fun at bureaucrats.
At another point, Bush strode across the room for a close-up chat with Lucinda Harman, a Salado, Texas, registered nurse confined to a wheelchair. When Harman’s service dog, Quint, did not respond to Bush’s attention, the president quipped: “He was afraid I was going to give a speech.”
The president said throughout the day that he was there to hear from the guests. Bush listened attentively, often taking notes.
Democrats, who before the conference even began criticized the lack of diverse opinions at the forum, did not let up afterward.
“Under this administration, we’ve lost nearly 2 million jobs, $7 trillion in the market and more than $5 trillion of the surplus,” Daschle said.
In his closing remarks, Bush may have unwittingly reinforced Democrats’ complaints about the highly orchestrated event by thanking Baylor for “putting on a great show.”
