"When you're on the campaign trail with all these politicos who know
nothing about the economy and are saying, 'We've got to do something,'
there's got to be pressure to come up with something at least
rhetorically beyond 'Four More Years,' " said Bruce Bartlett, a
conservative economist and commentator.

"But as far as I can see, there's nothing."

From The Washington Post, 8/24/04:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27055-2004Aug23.html

Bush Team Lacks Clear Economic Plan, Critics Say

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 24, 2004; Page E01

High oil prices, a stagnant labor market -- and the lack of a more
forceful response from the Bush campaign -- have sparked worry among
White House allies that the administration's economic team has been
too content cheerleading in defense of past policies instead of
setting more detailed plans for a second term.

While the economic recovery hummed along, there were few complaints
about the low-key styles of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, Commerce
Secretary Donald L. Evans, National Economic Council director Stephen
Friedman and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman N. Gregory Mankiw
-- especially after the internal bickering that marred the tenure of
Bush's first economic team.

But recent news, from slowing economic growth to wilting job creation,
has changed the landscape.

With the Republican convention a week away, allies and opponents are
clamoring for more specifics.

"You either define yourself on these big issues or the Democrats will
define you," said Richard K. Armey, the former House Republican leader
who co-chairs the new conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks.

"John Kerry will do just fine with what he thinks your secret plan is
if you don't tell us what it is."

"This is a team that's much more subtle, much more behind the scenes,
working together rather than three lone rangers" like the first Bush
team, said Diane Swonk, the chief economist at Bank One Corp.

"Up until even just a month ago, it was okay to be behind the scenes,
but we have a different economic atmosphere now."

Responding to such pleas, the Bush campaign recently began advertising
the "ownership agenda," with the president intoning, "One of the most
important parts of a reform agenda is to encourage people to own
something: own their own home, own their own business, own their own
health care plan or own a piece of their retirement."

But the advertisement did little to quell the concern.

Voters, in fact, received few details.

Those were left to a fact sheet e-mailed to reporters: tax-free
medical savings accounts, assistance with down payments for low-income
home buyers, the extension of previous tax cuts and the diversion of
some Social Security taxes to personal accounts that could be invested
in stocks or bonds.

Armey said Bush spoke more clearly and forcefully on some of these
issues -- especially Social Security privatization -- in the 2000
campaign than he is doing now.

Besides, said Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter, "he has been talking about the ownership agenda for a
while. I can't see this at all as new."

"I guess the most accurate thing I could say is there's sort of a
deafening silence," said Donald Luskin, a conservative investment
adviser in California.

Referring to the current economic team, Luskin said, "The period these
people have been in power is a period when very little economic
initiative has been coming out of the White House."

On Wall Street, numerous economists praise the team's handling of some
delicate matters.

Through frequent visits and earnest listening sessions, Snow has
repaired relations between the administration and the financial
community after the damage done by his predecessor, Paul H. O'Neill,
whose offhand and sometimes insulting comments upset Wall Street.

The Treasury Department has deftly handled an orderly decline in the
value of the dollar, boosting U.S. exports through dollar deflation
without creating a currency crisis, the economists said. Faced with
anger over Chinese imports, the economic team has diplomatically
placated protectionist voices without disrupting trade relations.

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Bush Team Lacks Clear Economic Plan, Critics Say

Those are points of pride to the Treasury as well, said Snow's chief
spokesman, Rob Nichols. Snow goes to Wall Street every two to three
weeks, holds roundtables with prominent economists from brokerage
houses, and on specific subjects, such as China, summons importers,
exporters, manufacturing and finance experts before making policy
statements.

But, these same economists complained, the public comments of
administration officials -- especially Snow -- tend toward boosterism,
no matter the audience or the economic news at the moment.

"The secretary of Treasury has done a more than adequate job
expositing the views of the president," said Allen Sinai, president
and chief economist of Decision Economics Inc.

But, he added, "Is he a brilliant leader of policy, creatively dealing
with the issues? Look, what I've not seen from this administration is
a clear articulation of policy for the future."

In February, after the economy added a disappointing 83,000 jobs, Snow
told an audience at the Center for Strategic & International Studies,
a prominent private, nonpartisan organization headquartered in
Washington, "The president's tax cuts have worked."

In April, with jobs rising smartly but record trade and budget
deficits weighing on bond traders' minds, he told the Bond Market
Association in New York, "We're on very solid footing, our upward
trend is strong, and there can be no doubt that President Bush's
leadership on tax cuts has made a decisive difference."

In May, when the unemployment rate of 20- to 24-year-olds had risen to
9.7 percent, from 9.2 percent the month before, he told graduates at
Kenyon College in Ohio, "The job market is ripe for you right now."

On Thursday, Snow told employees of a ventilation company in
Springfield, Mo., "The tax cuts . . . are a critical part of the
reason why I am able to report that our national economy has found its
footing."

Meanwhile, in New York, the Conference Board, a business research
firm, reported a second straight monthly decline in its index of
leading economic indicators.

"The latest decline in the leading index reflects a loss of forward
momentum," said Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein, citing
"worries about where economic growth will come from now that tax
refunds have been spent."

Suzy DeFrancis, a deputy assistant to the president who helps
coordinate the administration's economic message, said that, far from
mere boosterism, administration officials "are giving an accurate
picture of what the economy looks like at any given time."

But the current message of economic rebirth is "only working
moderately well" with voters, and repeating it in the face of contrary
news is not going to help, said Frank Luntz, a pollster and focus
group organizer.

"I think these guys need to have a real education session with the
American people," he said.

"There's a discussion of what's positive -- that's natural -- but
there's not a discussion of the risks. There's discussion of tax cuts,
and their gains, but not their costs," said Sinai of Decision
Economics.

"Leveling with Americans on risk, on the facts of life, on really why
things are done, and even admitting that mistakes have been made, I
think Americans understand all that. And I don't think we're getting
leveled with."

Without a more explicit economic plan, interested parties can fill in
the blanks.

In recent days, taking advantage of statements by the president as
well as a government study issued in Washington, Sen. John F. Kerry
(Mass.), the Democratic presidential nominee, charged that Bush will
push a regressive, national sales tax if reelected, will slash
spending on veterans and will further shift the federal tax burden
from the rich to the middle class.

"Because there's this huge intellectual void, anybody with an idea of
the day has the policy of the day, until it is shot down by the next
idea," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who was a political strategist
in the Clinton White House.

Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said the president will unveil
concrete proposals for his next term in his speech to the convention
and in the run-up to Election Day.

But skeptics, many of them supporters, are beginning to doubt the
president will get much beyond general themes such as "ownership" or
"tax simplification."

"When you're on the campaign trail with all these politicos who know
nothing about the economy and are saying, 'We've got to do something,'
there's got to be pressure to come up with something at least
rhetorically beyond 'Four More Years,' " said Bruce Bartlett, a
conservative economist and commentator.

"But as far as I can see, there's nothing."

__________________________________________________________

Discomfort in the ranks? Ya might call it that. I'm sure there are
other words to describe conservative reaction to Bush stupidity.

Harry