What this administration needs more than anything is an economic visionary. It isn't enough to have skill and rattle off dry facts. The American people will be asleep before the first sentence has concluded.
You need someone that can relate economics in a manner that is relevant to daily life. It has to be optimistic, interesting, and it wouldn't hurt to tie it into a deeper theme. "Ownership Society" is a good start at packaging.
I'd expand on this theme by invoking the basic concept of freedom. Explain how the system we now have enters us into a deceptive type of indentured service with the government, in the end even retirement doesn't buy release. Tie in history and how something as basic as taxation without representation stirred this country to a revolution. Our educational system being what it is, they Might know about the event but I'd wager they lack understanding of how this unbearably infringed on individual liberties.
The Bush Administration desperately needs someone that can passionately draw people to an understanding of not only the necessity of these reforms, but that the enactment of these policies will remove a burden they aren't even conscious of since it's been on their shoulders since birth.
For me, the idea of reforming S.S. and perhaps removal of the current tax system is almost as breathtaking a step for liberty and freedom as our actions in the middle east. They just need someone that can convey this to the American people.
Steve Forbes, he is super bright and has vision. Not sure he'd work for Bush, and I don't think Bush would want him either. To bad, cause he is the one man I know that might be able to put together an economic blueprint for the nation.