Bush to Seek to Boost His Image on Economic Policy
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 10, 2003; Page A04
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48887-2003Feb9.html
President Bush's intermittent efforts to appear as concerned about jobs as he is about terrorism have never taken hold, and his aides say he will use the next two weeks to try to improve his footing on the economy before likely plunging into a war with Iraq.
The aim is to chip away at what may be Bush's biggest long-term vulnerability, and to combat complaints he is focusing on Iraq at the expense of other national problems. But even Bush's aides acknowledge the exercise will be pointless without marked long-term increases in growth and decreases in unemployment.
The presidential push is a defensive public relations move at a time of rising angst among GOP lawmakers and lobbyists about Bush's shaky standing on domestic issues.
History shows that strength as commander in chief is no shield against voters who are worried about their pocketbooks. So as Bush meets with heads of state and dials around the globe to broaden support for unseating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the White House will stage a series of speeches and events designed to show presidential sympathy for small businesses and middle-class investors.
"During the next two weeks, the president and many members of his administration are going to focus on two main goals: diplomacy abroad and jobs at home," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday.
On Wednesday, Bush will take a break from his war council to meet with small investors in Alexandria. When Bush visits troops at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday, he first will stop off at a small business to promote his economic plans.
Top members of Bush's administration will visit 20 cities over the next week or so to promote his "jobs and growth package," and House Republicans will make that the theme of town-hall meetings back home.
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, who was sworn in last week, worked to debunk what he said were misconceptions about the economic package by taking "Real Jobs That Last," a 26-slide PowerPoint presentation, to a House and Senate Republican retreat in West Virginia on Saturday.
This week, Snow is headed to Wall Street, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans will fly to Atlanta to visit Heavenly Cheesecakes Inc. and hold a roundtable with 30 business leaders about the plan. R. Glenn Hubbard, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, is headed for Chicago, and Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao also will travel.
The offensive comes after a string of polls showing Bush has lost the wartime approval of many Democrats and independents, largely because of worries about the economy. The budget Bush released last week offers hundreds of pages of fodder for Democrats who say Bush is once again a polarizing figure -- "dividing the country by race and riches," in the words of a Senate Democratic leadership aide.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Bush's plans for the next two weeks show that the White House is prepared to play politics at a time of grave threats.
"Americans today want unity, not division," Kennedy said. "I find it astounding that the administration would choose this of all times to pursue a partisan, right-wing agenda."
Bush had theme weeks -- education or tax cuts, for example -- during his campaign and early in his administration, but the White House has rarely used that tactic since the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Bush's aides are hoping to recapture some of the momentum he had with lawmakers and the public after the GOP's midterm election gains, when White House officials proclaimed a "second 100 days" -- a reference to a president's traditional post-inauguration honeymoon.
Some of Bush's allies in the K Street lobbying community fret that the White House botched the rollout of his two domestic priorities -- fundamental changes to Medicare, and the economic package, which is built around eliminating taxes on stock dividends.
Parts of both plans have been panned on Capitol Hill, even by many Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers are complaining about the huge deficits built into Bush's new budget.
"Bush has lost his luster," said an aide to a Senate Republican leader. "There are difficulties for him on the entire domestic agenda."
Bush officials are scrambling to make amends with Congress. The Medicare proposal is being rewritten, although aides don't know when it will be ready, promising only "early this year." An official said Friday a central tenet of the plan -- that seniors who want prescription drugs would have to join a managed-care network -- is still under review.
A White House official acknowledged that it was a mistake to let some parts of Bush's agenda, including a plan to allow Americans to shelter large swaths of their savings and investments from taxes, "hit Congress out of the blue."
"We need to explain these initiatives and make a case for them, and then the president will fight for them," the official said.
White House officials, for all their jitters, maintain that Bush will eventually get much of what he proposed, just as he did his first year in office, when his campaign plan for a $1 trillion tax cut wound up being passed with only minor concessions. "We don't seek unanimity at the beginning of the process," a senior administration official said. "The president seeks a majority at the end."
Michael McCurry, press secretary to President Bill Clinton, said the administration is smart to systematically put Bush in settings that convey concern about domestic matters. But McCurry said the events are unlikely to make much of an impression, because news coverage will be focused on war preparations.
"This may well all be mood music for the right wing, and they know that two months from now, no one will remember it," McCurry said. "As a postwar president, he can then put his energy into restarting a domestic agenda."
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