It's The Economic Team, Stupid
David Kusnet was chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton from 1992 through 1994, and was also a speechwriter for Walter Mondale during his campaign against Ronald Reagan in 1984. He is the author of Speaking American: How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties and a visiting fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
Twelve years ago, the blackboard in Bill Clinton's campaign headquarters had the famous slogan: "It's the economy, stupid."
For the past few weeks, John Kerry's campaign headquarters and the Democratic National Committee's office should have had signs saying, "It's Bush's stupid economic team."
Yes, Kerry's been running a great campaign, Democrats from every faction have been rallying behind him, and the latest USA Today/CNN Gallup poll has him beating President Bush by 52 percent to 44 percent with a 50 percent to 42 percent lead on the question of who'd handle the economy best.
But Kerry, the Democrats, and their allies have failed to capitalize as much as they could on a string of five gaffes on economic issues by Bush administration officials.
In the best known blunder, Greg Mankiw, the Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters that outsourcing American jobs to other countries is "a good thing" because "more things are tradable than in the past."
While Mankiw was talking about technical and professional jobs moving overseas, his staff showed they don't care any more about manufacturing jobs. On page 73 of this year's Economic Report of the President, there's a box headlined, "What is manufacturing?" It helpfully suggests that making hamburgers in fast-food restaurants may be a form of manufacturing.
Maybe economic advisers are supposed to be academics who aren't afraid to ask interesting questions or offer unorthodox answers. But the Secretary of Labor is supposed to care about workaday realities, like jobs and paychecks. So it came as a shock when Bush's Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, dismissed a question from CNN about disappointing job growth.
"The stock market, after all, is the final arbiter," Chao replied. "And the stock market was very strong this morning in response to the news that we have just received."
Just as Labor Secretaries are supposed to care about jobs, Secretaries of Health and Human Services are expected to be concerned about health care. So there's a firestorm waiting to happen about Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson's recent revelation that Americans already enjoy universal health coverage.
As The Seattle Times reported on March 3, after returning from a two-day visit to Iraq, Thompson defended the Bush administration's plans to spend $950 million to help that country establish universal health care.
Asked why Americans should help Iraq achieve universal health coverage when we still don't have it here, Thompson explained: "Even if you don't have health insurance, you are still taken care of in America. That certainly would be defined as universal coverage."
Unlike Mankiw and Chao, Thompson, has actually run for and won public office, serving 14 years as governor of Wisconsin. So it's hard to imagine him trying to explain to anxious auto, brewery, or electronics workers that, even if they lose their jobs, they shouldn't worry about the families' health care because their kids can always go to the emergency room at the nearest hospital.
While most members of Bush's economic team hardly qualify as confidence-inspiring, the great exception is Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, who's served since Ronald Reagan's administration.
Greenspan wasn't committing a gaffe—by definition, nothing Greenspan says is ever a gaffe—but he did create a stir when he told a House Committee that growing federal deficits will force future cuts in Medicare and Social Security. But he added that, in spite of these looming problems, Bush's tax cuts should not be cut back.
The venerable Fed Chairman was shining a spotlight on what Bush and the rest of his economic team had denied since Day One: that $2 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy would force comparable cuts in programs for working Americans and retirees.
If, as the journalist Michael Kinsley famously observed, public officials commit gaffes when they accidentally tell the truth, then only Greenspan's gaffe can be considered inadvertent truth-telling about America's economic condition.
Thompson, Mankiw, and Chao were revealing little more than how out of touch they are with the economic as it is experienced by working Americans who worry that their jobs will be downsized, outsourced, or offshored, and, while they may find a low-wage job flipping hamburgers, they'll have a hard time getting health coverage for their kids.
Bush's Brain Trust tells them not to worry. Offshoring jobs is good for the American economy; fast food restaurants maintain America's manufacturing might; and you can always take your kids to the emergency room.
While these flubs are still fresh in Americans' memories, the Democrats should make sure that the voters don't forget their rare glimpses into the outlook of an Administration that stood by while the nation lost 2.9 million private sector-jobs, family incomes declined by 1.7 percent, and 3.4 million families lost their health coverage. For Kerry, other prominent Democrats, and their allies, every stump speech, every TV spot, and every web-site should include reminders that the folks who brought us this job-loss economy have offered words of wisdom that explain what they were thinking when they did it.
Before long, Karl Rove and Karen Hughes may muzzle Mankiw, provide daily talking points for Chao, and ask Thompson to remember what it was like to run for office. Before the political team sends the economic team to the showers, the Democrats need to tattoo his brain trust's blunders on Bush's forehead.
David Kusnet was chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton from 1992 through 1994. He is the author of "Speaking American: How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties."
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