Posted on 08/04/2003 12:33:05 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
CRAWFORD, Tex. - President Bush slipped speedily into vacation mode this past weekend at his furnace of a ranch in Central Texas, where he spent Sunday fishing, clearing cedar and going for a walk with the first lady and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. But before the president ducked out of public sight, he made sure to address one of the biggest re-election anxieties of Karl Rove, his chief political adviser: the nation's continuing loss of jobs and the uncertainty about the economy.
"This week, three members of my cabinet — Treasury Secretary John Snow, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao — visited business owners and their workers in the Midwest," Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday. "They received reports that the economy is picking up."
Well, yes and no.
Anyone on the trip, which was a very un-Air Force One-like, two-day, six-city bus journey across Wisconsin and Minnesota (Ms. Chao dined on Tuesday night at Burger King), could see that the cabinet members charged with promoting the president's tax cuts also heard a lot of anger from workers about foreign competition and laid-off relatives and friends.
"Right now I am very disillusioned with the Republicans' policies," said Michael Retzer, a Republican and a consultant to a supplier for Harley-Davidson. Mr. Retzer told Mr. Snow at a Harley plant near Milwaukee that he did not see how the tax cuts would stimulate the economy when so many consumers would spend the extra money on goods made overseas.
Later, in the kind of confrontation with a disgruntled citizen almost never seen on the president's trips, Mr. Snow tangled with an unemployed software programmer at the drive-through at Culver's Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers in Wausau, Wis.
"He said, `But your tax cuts haven't done anything for me,' " Mr. Snow recounted the next day to reporters, as the bus traveled through Minnesota. "And I said, `Well, now, let's just take a second and talk about that.' "
Here in McLennan County, Tex. — which includes the nearby city of Waco, the one-stoplight town of Crawford and the president's 1,600-acre ranch — the number of people unable to find work jumped to more than 6,000 in June 2003 from more than 4,000 in June 2000, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"That's pretty much a general slowdown that mirrors the rest of the country," said Cheryl Abbot, an economist at the agency's Southwest Regional Office in Dallas.
Although the McLennan County unemployment rate jumped from 4 percent in June 2000 to 5.7 percent in June 2003, it was still lower than the national unemployment rate in June of 6.4 percent. But the jobless rate for Texas that month was 7.5 percent, and more than 800,000 people in the state could not find work, up from 527,000 people in June 2000.
An unscientific series of interviews with Crawford businesspeople and churchgoers Sunday revealed plenty of support for Mr. Bush, whose presidency has brought a surge of tourists to the once-shuttered main street but uneasiness about the economy and nervousness about his policies.
"You look at the tax breaks he's cut for everybody and I wonder how he's able to do that," said John Dutschmann, 32, a sales manager for a concrete products company who had just attended services at Crawford's First Baptist Church. Mr. Dutschmann, a Democrat who supported Mr. Bush in 2000, said he was still behind the president, although he had trepidations about the economy. "We just put our trust in him, and we hope he knows what he's doing," he said.
Paul Stripling, 67, a Republican and executive director emeritus of the Waco Baptist Association, who had also attended services at the First Baptist Church, said that Waco had not felt the economic crunch as much as other parts of Texas and that Mr. Bush "is doing the best he can with a very precarious situation."
Brent Duncan, 40, a hotel owner who was talking with other parishioners after services at Crawford's United Methodist Church, said that his business was doing well — he is building a hotel in the nearby town of McGregor — and that he would probably vote for Mr. Bush in 2004. But Mr. Duncan, who described himself as a conservative Democrat, said that his support was not guaranteed.
"Let's see who the Democrats put out," he said.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mr. Bush has little on his public schedule this week, although Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is to make an appearance Friday.
But next week, as part of a monthlong campaign to try to convince voters that sunnier economic days are just around the corner, Mr. Bush will meet at the ranch with his economic team, then take his economic message around the country in day trips from Crawford. His tone will be upbeat, which was evidently the tenor of the report he heard from his cabinet secretaries after the Midwest bus trip last week.
As Mr. Snow put it, "I'm going to go back and tell the president, `Mr. President, I ran into a lot of people who asked me personally to express my gratitude to you for worrying and thinking about us.' "
Mr. Snow did not say if he would mention the man in the drive-through at Culver's.
So you think that Big Government can provide health care benefits more efficiently than the private sector?
Your pinko commie roots are showing!
The analyst of the firm I work for who covers Harley (Ticker: HDI) says the reports they hear from the dealers is that they are selling off the shelves.
One thing that I am noticing a lot more of lately is people talking about how bad the economy, but when pressed, saying, "Well... actually, I am doing great... but I'm just concerned about others." Sigh...
One of the advantages of having Uncle Sam involved in anything is that he can slash costs by delivering a sub-standard, sh!tty product without having to worry about getting sued. Ask any doctor how much he gets paid by a private insurance company and how much he gets paid by Medicare for the same procedure.
This is exactly what is going on here. Give it another 15-20 years, and "government-paid insurance" will cost $25 per year and will cover nothing more than a couple of hospital visits from a dancing medicine man.
No thank you.
Since you are not reflecting national statistical trends in your circle of associates I suggest you get out a little more and meet some people outside your current circle.
Might be funny to you but it’s not to people who are out of a career because of it. Even if things do work out “in the long run” if Bush does not at least pretend to take this seriously and propose to do something about it, the 04’ elections might really make the sky start falling. I’m not a Bush basher. I like W a lot and think he has done quite a bit to restore pride in America and the office of the presidency (especially after 8 years of Clinton) but he needs to get on the ball with this. Foreign military policy will only carry him so far.
Since I was not referring to George H. W. Bush I fail to see why you even brought this up. Can anyone name the US president who ran with the campaign slogan "Prosperity is just arround the Corner."
I am familiar with Monster.Com and I am also familiar with teh nunemployment numbers and the number of jobs that have disappeared since the "recovery" started. Do a monster search or hotjobs search for I/T you will find thousands upon thousands of jobs. The Agency for Workforce Innovation said Friday that there were 7,272,900 non-farm jobs in Florida last month, up 1.6 percent over the same month a year earlier. That is an increase of 116366 jobs since last year. There are several cities across the nation that have under 3% unemployment. Jobs are coming back my friend.
Tell me when it happens as I am of the opinion some additional steps from GWB are necessary for his election which personally I would prefer of any Democrat. Now there is ample evidence there are some structural problems in the US economy and what I am stating is it is fast becoming time for him to do this.
Take this with a grain of salt because I cant back it up with anything concrete (perhaps someone else can) but I heard that companies have to post IT jobs and interview US citizens before they can get workers on the H1B and L1 visas. One complaint a friend of mine made is that he feels he is going in for interviews where the interviewer obliquely makes him aware that regardless of how he presents himself he’s not getting a job.
The other thing I’d be interested to hear is what kind of non farm jobs have been picked up. Any info on this?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.