Democrats Assail Bush On Economy

President Bush's approach to the economy has been "an abdication of leadership," House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt said Tuesday while outlining his own proposals for a $200 billion package of tax cuts and federal spending to trigger economic growth.

"Our economy has been hit from all directions including 9-11, scandals on Wall Street, job losses on Main Street and the threat of future conflict in Iraq," Gephardt said in the latest of what is likely to be a steady stream of economic proposals from possible Democratic candidates for president.

"Yet the administration proceeds along serenely as if everything is fine — playing politics with the economy and denying the disastrous consequences of their actions," the Missouri Democrat said.

In his remarks Tuesday, Gephardt said both Republicans and Democrats need to meet and come up with a new bipartisan economic plan because the current strategy is not working.

He proposed $75 billion in tax cuts "to help working families and encourage company investment in the near term."

The stimulus plan also would include $25 billion in spending for school construction, $25 billion to help state and local communities protect key facilities from terrorism and $75 billion for health care, helping those who have lost jobs keep health insurance and increasing the federal contribution to Medicaid.

"In the short term, let us do what many economists have suggested and prime the pump so more money goes into the economy," he said at a briefing sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.

Republicans dismissed Gephardt's proposals, saying they offered nothing new.

Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement that, "All of the initiatives laid out by Minority Leader Gephardt today have already been proposed by Republicans."

Racicot also charged that Gephardt was placing political concerns above concern for the country. "If Congressman Gephardt would invest as much time and effort working in good faith to address the business of the American people as he has seeking political advantage for his party, America would be well-served," said Racicot.

Like many prominent Democrats, Gephardt again declined to call for any changes to the Bush administration's tax cuts — though he said he did not support the president's economic program and predicted it would not help the economy.

"Unfortunately, history has proven my side of the argument correct," he said.

The tax cut enacted last year is the most disputed part of Mr. Bush's economic plan, but few of the Democrats considering a run for the White House in 2004 have mentioned changes they would make in it.

"Democrats have a strong case against the economic policies of President Bush and the Republicans," said Gene Sperling, who was a top economic adviser in the Clinton administration. "But many understandably fear they'll be effectively demagogued if they get too specific about more painful measures that might be needed."

Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said he opposed the sharp tax cuts he thinks are sapping the strength of the country. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman have called for steps to trim back future tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

All the leading Democratic White House contenders have generally resisted the GOP proposal to make the tax cuts permanent.

But some of the more prominent Democrats in the group, including Gephardt, 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, have not called for rolling back the 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry called for "a return to the fiscal responsibility we gave this country in 1993 when we passed the Deficit Reduction Act."

Longtime Democratic activists say the leaders in their party recognize that calling for a repeal of the tax would not change the tax plan, but would give Mr. Bush and other Republicans an issue to use as a bludgeon in an election year.

With polls showing there is widespread worry about the economy, the challenge for Democrats three weeks before the November election is to convince voters it's the Republicans fault, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.

Republicans counter that the Democrats do not necessarily have an advantage on the economy issue.

GOP pollster Mathew Dowd wrote party leaders this week that "Democrats do not have the voters' overwhelming trust on the economy and have no real solutions from their leaders." He concluded, "The Republicans are in a great position to win the debate on the economy in this election."