Bush Courts Blacks
President Bush, making a rare appearance before a group that represents black Americans, said Monday the U.S. economy is showing fresh signs of improvement. He urged Congress to approve languishing legislation to help low-income Americans and those having a hard time finding work.
"Greater opportunity and hope begins with a growing economy," Mr. Bush told a conference of the National Urban League. His appearance was part of an effort to build ties to a demographic group that overwhelmingly voted against him in 2000.
"Our nation has come a long way, and we have a long way to go. We will not stop, we will not tire until we extend the great promise of America to every neighborhood of America," Mr. Bush told an audience of about 1,500.
The president noted that the economy has been sluggish since he took office. But, he said, in recent days government reports have signaled that the tide may be turning.
"A lot of economists are beginning to forecast a better tomorrow," he said.
He cited encouraging recent figures on home sales and retail sales and said that inflation remains low.
"We saw a problem and we dealt with it straight up," Mr. Bush said, referring to three successive tax cuts passed so far in his presidency.
Still, he said that Congress had not yet acted on legislation he favors to extend to the working poor rebate checks of $400 per child. The measure is bogged down in major differences between House and Senate versions. He also sought to prod Congress to pass legislation to improve job training opportunities.
"Congress needs to help those who are having trouble finding work," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush did not use what had been a common line in his speeches on the economy, suggesting that he had inherited a recession from former President Clinton. Instead, he told the Urban League that the most recent recession began "in the first quarter of 2001."
The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic economists that is the recognized arbiter of recessions, said earlier this month that the recession began in March 2001 and ended that November — all on Mr. Bush's watch.
The Urban League, which receives government funds, has been more restrained in its criticism than the NAACP, which he has shunned during his 2 1/2 years in office.
It was Mr. Bush's second trip in a week, and the 21st of his presidency, to Pennsylvania, a state he is working hard to capture next year's election. Mr. Bush spoke about 30 minutes, but did not plan to meet otherwise with Urban League leaders or members.
The crowd of delegates and other activists, almost all black, listened respectfully as Mr. Bush outlined his domestic agenda.
His most sustained applause came when Mr. Bush gave an impassioned argument for education reforms he has enacted. Some of his lines dated back to 1999, when he began running for the presidency, but Mr. Bush sought to give his words fresh urgency by jabbing the air with an index finger as he declared: "We must challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations."
As the applause rose, Mr. Bush leaned toward his audience and said, "And you know what I'm talking about."
"We simply have got to stop shuffling our students from grade to grade!" Mr. Bush said, his voice rising to a shout.
Mr. Bush also drew applause when he pitched his initiatives to pull religious groups into government-financed social service programs.
The president has yet to meet with the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose leaders have met with every president, with the possible exception of Coolidge and Hoover, since Warren Harding. Mr. Bush addressed the NAACP's annual convention as a presidential candidate in 2000, but he hasn't been back.
Nor has he met with the omnibus Leadership Conference of Civil Rights. He met for just an hour or so, during his first month in office, with the Congressional Black Caucus, has ignored the group's half-dozen subsequent requests to meet again.
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said he requested meetings with Mr. Bush in 2001 and 2002. "I was told politely, in writing, that he'd love to meet, but his schedule just didn't allow it," he said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan disputed that.
"The president is someone that is an inclusive leader and he talks to a variety of groups from across the political spectrum and reaches out to people from all walks of life," McClellan said.