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President Pushing on a String - Money Matters for 12/5/05
President Bush, facing the lowest approval ratings of his career amid persistent scandals and a no-win situation in Iraq, turned today to the sometimes friend of presidents past - the economy - to help shore up his flagging administration.
Mr. Bush, along with his advisors and speech writers, obviously has nothing left in the arsenal with which to assail the American public. His over-the-top effort to partially privatize Social Security is a long-dead horse. The policies promoted by his income tax restructuring team have been largely ignored, mostly because they made little sense and even less difference to the average American.
With Iraq a complete mess and the elections there (which should give the president a little bump up) still more than a week in the future, Mr. Bush needed something to go out and make speeches about and the economy, which seems to have been gliding along nicely of late, offered a good choice.
In Bush's dream world, massive federal deficits and a foreign trade imbalance which has reached 6% of GDP are just fine. So are tax cuts during a war. And the numbers the Commerce Department and Labor Department dream up on everything from productivity to GDP to unemployment are just peachy and wholly believable. Offshoring good jobs and allowing illegal aliens to work, get paid and even collect some government benefits are other good ideas.
Mr. Bush went out today and among other things - in a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black - chastised corporations for underfunding retirement plans. In a world in which there is a two-sided debate (not under this administration) somebody would remind the president that he's responsible for shortchanging the future of many Americans with his budget deficits and off-budget items, like his little war.
Bush can lay claim to whatever his spinmeisters like to lay out for him in terms of the economy. He can claim that the US economy is growing. He can claim that unemployment is low. He can claim that jobs are being created. Mr. Bush can claim whatever he wants. That doesn't mean that he or his policies had anything to do with any of it.
In fact, considering the track record of this administration, the chances that the economy will fail now that Bush is taking credit for it are growing. There's ample evidence that the expansion since late 2001 has run out of steam and the rate of growth is slowing. Even the White House's own estimate of 3.4% growth in 2006 is lower than the estimate for 2005 - 3.5% - so just what is the president getting at, other than to divert attention from the real problems facing the country?
Mr. Bush hasn't a clue about the US economy, nor what's good for American workers and business. He's politicized just about everything else his dirty little hands have touched, so the economy is fair game. The problem is that within six months, the president - as usual - will be eating his own words.
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