Democratic leaders try to draw voters' attention to economic differences with Bush

Oct. 17, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt issues a mid-October plan for income tax rebates. Senate Democrats seek immediate passage of bills to extend unemployment benefits and raise the minimum wage.

None of these measures is likely to become law anytime soon. Instead, they are part of an increasingly urgent attempt to draw a contrast with President Bush and Republicans on the economy as Democrats struggle for late advantage in the midterm elections.

"We need policies devoted to one central purpose: creating economic growth with more jobs and higher wages for Americans," Gephardt, D-Mo., said this week, outlining a proposal that Democratic aides said was meant to provide a rallying point for candidates in close races.

Thus far, Republican political leaders betray little concern about the Democratic attempt to help voters focus more on the economy and less on terrorism and the possibility of war with Iraq.

Requests on the Senate floor by Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone and other Democrats are routinely brushed aside by Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the GOP whip, in choreographed moments of Senate theater.

And less than 24 hours after Gephardt unveiled his late-campaign economic agenda, House Republicans sidetracked legislation to give tax breaks to investors hurt by stock market losses and to help some of the nation's jobless. "There's just not total agreement on it," said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

President Bush mentions the economy regularly as he campaigns for GOP candidates.

In Georgia on Thursday, he renewed his call for Congress to make last year's tax cuts permanent. "I will continue to work on our economy, helping to make sure our workers can find work. There's a lot of things we can do. We need an energy bill, we need a terrorism insurance bill, we need to make sure Congress doesn't overspend."

He quickly added, "Economic issue's a big issue. There's no bigger issue, however, than protecting the homeland."

As those remarks indicate, the president sometimes discusses the economy in the context of the war on terrorism. As a political issue, the war tilts toward the Republicans.

At the same time, GOP pollsters issue periodic warnings that economic concerns may be a late-developing issue in the campaign for control of Congress.

The collection of issues that favored Republicans earlier this fall "has been replaced by one that largely favors Democrats," Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio concluded in a recent memo. "Namely the economy-focused voters and specifically those who cite `economy-jobs' as the most important issue in their vote."

Fabrizio wrote his assessment after a fresh round of polling in 40 competitive House races, the districts where the battle for control of the House will be settled. Not coincidentally, Fabrizio's poll found that Democrats had moved into a tie with Republicans in a hypothetical ballot matchup.

Other polling suggests Democrats haven't yet shown the voters they are presenting a clear choice to Bush on economic issues.

In a nationwide Newsweek survey, only 32 percent of those polled said Democrats offer a clear-cut alternative to Bush in that area.

That's virtually the same as the 33 percent that said the Democrats were offering a clear alternative to Bush on Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

That's troublesome news for Democrats, and particularly for Gephardt, who has spent months trying to align Democrats with Bush on the Iraqi issue while stressing differences on the economy.

Democratic efforts on to stake out different ground on the economy have been hampered by internal divisions. Neither Gephardt nor Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is willing to call for rolling back the tax cuts that Bush pushed through Congress last year, even though they criticize them for disproportionately benefiting the wealthy.

Many liberals favor such a rollback, but most of them don't face competitive elections this fall. Instead, several Senate Democrats on the ballot voted for the cuts when they passed, including Sens. Jean Carnahan of Missouri and Tim Johnson in Daschle's home state of South Dakota.

And Democratic candidates in pivotal Southern and Western House districts are not eager for a debate over rolling back year-old tax cuts - fearing GOP charges that they are part of the tax-and-spend party.

Nickles gave Democrats a taste of what they might expect on the Senate floor during the day. First he blocked the customary Democratic proposals. Then he asked for hurry-up approval of two measures, including one to repeal a tax on Social Security earnings approved in 1993, and another to make last year's marriage penalty tax cut permanent.

Democrats promptly blocked both.

For his part, Gephardt proposed $75 billion in immediate rebates and tax cuts, a higher minimum wage, extended unemployment benefits and "corporate welfare cuts," to provide revenue for the other measures.

"This president has failed to lead. ... Democrats will lead," he said on Wednesday at a campaign-style rally across the street from the Capitol - a quartet of Democrats in close races standing nearby.