Fake ForumBush's economic forum belies its pretense.
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2002, at 7:34 PM ETThis afternoon at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, President Bush and Vice President Cheney sat side by side on the stage of a packed auditorium for more than an hour. That's the first time they've been that close together for that long in public since Sept. 11. Evidently they're no longer afraid of terrorists. What they're afraid of is Americans.
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StumbleUponThe White House advertised the event as an exchange between Bush and the public. The Cabinet secretaries who led the forum's eight discussion sessions let the participants do most of the talking, and in his comments at the plenary session, Bush said he was there to "listen" to "ordinary Americans." Two of the participants who spoke onstage at the plenary session declared that they were "real people" and "regular folks." Both were heads of companies.
Indeed, nearly everybody in the two panel discussions aired on C-SPAN today was a CEO. The others were a student at Yale's graduate school of management; a woman who, combined with her husband's, had five college degrees; and a pair of union bosses who wore suits and talked only about the Bush policies they supported. Like plantation owners, the employers on hand spoke for their employees. "They are so happy to have jobs," one CEO told Bush.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill led the two televised discussion groups. They opened with standard Bush administration talking points: Some people are suffering, but the economy is sound; Bush's tax cuts helped cure the recession; and what we need now is more tax cuts and less regulation. Then they threw it open to the participants, who suggested that Bush should rethink … nothing.
Everyone wanted more tax cuts. Everyone demanded the permanent repeal of the "death tax." Some called for tort reform or local control of education. They argued that Bush's policies would cure even seemingly unrelated problems. Corporate malfeasance? Faith-based initiatives would help turn that around, said a business school dean. They repeated familiar Bush sound bites ("What we're suffering today, I believe, is an economic hangover," said one CEO) and implicitly traced the recession and weak business ethics to the Clinton years.
The coincidence of White House spin with the beliefs of these ordinary people was most remarkable in Evans' session on "Corporate Responsibility." Bush's policy on corporate corruption basically consists of moral condemnation, conspicuous punishment of fraud, and minimal regulation of bad systemic incentives. The participants in Evans' group agreed on every point, arguing that the solution was "moral responsibility" rather than more "laws," "regulation," and "bureaucracy." One CEO suggested teaching business leaders that "when you do something good, it feels good." Another proposed that simplifying the tax code would nurture "good governance in the private sector."
After the discussion sessions, everybody came together in the auditorium, and a representative from each group summarized its findings. Half the participants in the discussion groups appeared to be white men, but only one white man was picked to speak for his group. The representatives emphasized not only that Bush's policies were correct, but also that everyone in their groups had concurred.
Of course, if all these people agreed with Bush beforehand, then the event wasn't about listening. It was about selling Bush's policies. And if the public had already agreed with Bush, the sales job would have been unnecessary. It would have made no sense for Bush to appeal to "those who are watching on C-SPAN" or for O'Neill to apologize to participants "who didn't have an opportunity to say something for the television cameras." In short, the operational premise of the event was that its stated premise was false: The "real people" onstage held beliefs that the real people watching it didn't share. That ruse may have been economical. But it wasn't very presidential, and it certainly wasn't a forum.
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Notes From The Fray Editor:
Saletan's dismissal of the "Presidential Economic Forum" came as no surpise to anyone, save, possibly, Herb 323. Liberals and Conservatives came together as one to ridicule the idea that Presidential Fora are ever anything more than Soviet-style trumpery. Then they went back to sniping at each other.
Remarks From The Fray:
Hooray to Bush for taking a positive, proactive step toward giving our people a shot in the arm.
It is better than Bill Clinton's summit was back in Little Rock. It was so pointless, he and Algore fell asleep during it! It's on video! Bush's economic summit is different. It was a rallying cry, to highlight the people doing well and kill the doom-and-gloomers rhetoric.
Bush know that people are the economy, and the government can't do anything but get out of your way. Bush, holds a Harvard MBA, he understands that the economy is stronger than reported. There's none of this, "I feel your pain, you poor loser. You can't do it without me. Capitalism won't work for a dummy like you." He is unlike the Bush bashers who yearn for an economic crash! We need more tax cuts to free the average Joe from the oppressively high taxes and stimulate the economy again!
Of course DEMOS will always say that Bush is acting like he cares. The USA know Bush cares. There is no need to put on a pretend show that Bush cares. DEMOS FAIL AGAIN to HURT BUSH.
-- Herb 323
(To reply, click here.)
…Anyone who expected the forum to be anything but a paen to the received wisdom of the administration just hasn't paid any attention to what this group has been doing since early in the election campaign.
The message discipline of the Bush camp is better than most religious cults. People who are off message get punished swiftly (and effectively, it seems) and it's now obvious that expressed willingness to stay on message was one of prerequisites for being in the administration. Naturally, a forum that this administration puts together is going to share these characteristics.
It also was a nice touch to disinvite everyone in Congress. That avoided the possibility of rogue Republican Congressmen or Senators saying something that would embarrass the administration and, even better, will make it look like any counter forum that Daschle et al. devise is intended to be a partisan rebuttal.
All in all, it was very artful. I do wonder, though, if (a) anyone paid attention (after all, it is the middle of August); and (b) anyone who didn't already agree with Bush was swayed even one millimeter. Given the lack of give and take, the latter seems unlikely to me.
-- randy khan
(To reply, click here.)
Assume everything William Saletan says about the Waco forum is true. What, then, was the point of having it?
If it really was a political event, aimed at spreading a message of support for the Bush administration's agenda, how many people did it reach? A few thousand watching on C-Span, perhaps, most of whom probably support the administration anyway. However many did watch, or followed print or Internet accounts of the forum, many more received brief reports from the major broadcast networks or read newspaper stories that generally echoed Saletan's skeptical tone.
Blame the media if you want to, but a political event that doesn't reach anyone is just a reason to take up some space on the President's schedule. I hope Saletan is wrong about the policy value of this forum because its political value looks to be about zero.
-- Zathras
(To reply, click here.)
There are damn few arrows in Bush's quiver, so he has to use what he has got. He is trying to talk up the economy to make sure that the consumers keep spending until corporate spending comes back on line. There is some good news - consumers are still making large purchases like cars; the recent unemployment numbers were stable; there has been some legislation which has been passed, which will probably help in the long term.
Unfortunately, Bush's message actually came down to exactly what his father's message was - be patient and stay the course. That is because the Fed can't reduce interest rates much more than it has, and Bush's fiscal policy is simply to cut taxes. There's nothing left in his bag of tricks but to jawbone. That's what he did. Unfortunately, Bush is notoriously inarticulate, and his staff seems more and more to be out of touch with the pulse of the public. This show was atrociously transparent, which may have the opposite of the intended effect.
-- Cato the Censor
(To reply, click here.)
GWB is a cheerleader. This was a pep rally. I can hardly wait for the big bonfire the night before our road game with Iraq.
GO BIG DOW!
YOU KNOW HOW!
SSS-SSS-CISCO
SSS BOOM POW!
-- RonK
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