Bush, Economic Team Trumpet New Numbers

01/06/2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - Banking on more good economic news, President Bush and his top economic team made plans before Friday’s reports were even out to fan out across the country to trumpet positive new numbers.

Friday’s marquee event was Bush’s trip to Chicago, where he was to appear at the Chicago Board of Trade and deliver a speech on the economy before the Chicago Economic Club.

The day was also to see Vice President Dick Cheney touring a Harley-Davidson factory and making remarks in Kansas City, Mo.; Treasury Secretary John Snow on morning television and at the New York Stock Exchange; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in Louisville, Ky.; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao in Baltimore; and Energy Secretary Sam Bodman in Pittsburgh.

Their appearances were to follow the government’s release of its employment report for December, which most economists forecast will show a net gain of about 200,000 payroll jobs for the month. That would be slightly less than the 215,000 jobs created in November - unless that number is revised downward - but would still represent another decent month for the U.S. jobs picture.


Economists also predict unemployment to hold steady at 5 percent and believe there will be modest job gains throughout 2006.

It’s good enough for the White House.

After months in which the economy barely rated an appearance on the president’s schedule, the November jobs report inspired Bush and his Cabinet to turn renewed attention to the topic.

Bush’s poll numbers for handling the economy are up a bit since gasoline prices have fallen, according to AP-Ipsos polling.

And there is other positive news that Bush and his team point to, including respectable if not spectacular holiday retail sales, rising consumer confidence and a third-quarter growth rate of 4.3 percent that was the highest since early 2004.


“The tax cuts that we passed are working to create jobs and economic opportunity,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Democrats, on the other hand, note high prescription drug costs and confusion about the new Medicare prescription drug plan, high heating bills, displaced workers in the Gulf Coast and rising federal deficits.

“What we have here is the very definition of a middle-class squeeze - college tuition is way up, heating prices are at record levels and health care and prescription drug prices are through the roof,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “For the administration to be out there saying things are great shows just how out of touch they are with the average American.”

McClellan said Bush would take on Democrats who oppose his call to make previously passed tax cuts permanent, instead of letting some expire as they now are scheduled to do. The administration says that to oppose extending the cuts is to “advocate raising taxes.”

The president also was to call on Congress to employ spending restraint. “We need real discipline in Washington with the taxpayers’ money,” McClellan said.

Other areas Bush was to address include the need for freer trade around the world and adequate education and job training.