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		Home Page News You Can Use Econ Team Argues Bush Policies To Create Jobs Tuesday February 17, 5:45 pm ET By Elizabeth Price, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SPOKANE, Wash. -(Dow Jones)- The Bush administration is tackling the issue of unemployment head on, sending four members of its economic team to two states suffering from some of the worst unemployment rates in the country. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto are traveling by bus through Washington and Oregon on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are jumping into the debate over what is shaping up to be the No. 1 issue in the 2004 election - the plight of millions of Americans looking for work. Even as the U.S. economic recovery advances, angst among voters who have jobs continues amid reports that more and more skilled, high-paying jobs are being " outsourced" to foreign countries, like India and Russia. The officials argued that President George W. Bush's policies are strengthening the economy and creating the conditions for employment growth. "There's an awful lot that needs to be done to create a strong, growing economy, and all of us are focused on that like a laser," Snow said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "The top three economic priorities for the president are jobs, jobs and jobs," Evans said. "We have work to do, and we all understand that." Snow said that Bush "inherited" an economic recession, but because of two rounds of tax cuts the recession was shorter and more shallow than most. Nonetheless, Snow said the Bush administration is concerned about the lagging pace of job creation. In January, the U.S. payrolls grew by 112,000 following several months of anemic job growth, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.6%. In December, Washington state recorded unemployment of 6.8%, and Oregon recorded 7.2%, rates topped only by Alaska. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, now confident of taking the Democratic nomination for president, is shifting his focus from criticizing his party rivals to aiming for Bush. He wrapped up campaigning for the Wisconsin presidential primary by ridiculing Bush for his economic policies. "We need a president who says, 'America, let's start our economy and put people back to work'," Kerry said. A small group of protesters greeted the cabinet officials motorcade on their first stop in Spokane with signs, including one that said "Outsource Bush." Gregory Mankiw, Bush's chief on his Council of Economic Advisors, drew a storm of criticism last week by suggesting that outsourcing would in the long run make the U.S. economy more efficient. Snow said Mankiw's remarks were misinterpreted. "We want to create all the jobs we can," he said. The officials toured of a state-sponsored program to support small startup biotechnology companies. Taking questions from the largely sympathetic crowd of business leaders, Snow and Evans argued that the only way the government can promote job creation is by promoting economic growth. They again said the Bush- sponsored tax cuts over the past two years were essential to keeping the recovery on track, and would eventually lead to more jobs. "Jobs don't exist in isolation," Snow told reporters. "Jobs exist because somebody invested capital." Bush's tax cuts, especially his dividend tax cut favored the creation of more investment capital, the Treasury secretary said. Still, the officials tread carefully around White House forecasts for job growth of 2.6 million this year in the Economic Report of the President released last week. "I think we are going to create a lot of jobs, how many I don't know but we are going to keep working on it," Snow said. Evans noted the 2.6 million figure was the result of an economic model, which depended on a number of economic assumptions. "The change in assumptions can change the numbers pretty significantly, particularly the productivity number," he said. Economists say that explosive productivity growth, although good for jobs and wages long term, has hindered job creation by allowing companies to produce more with fewer workers. The officials defended the Bush budget, which critics say provides inadequate funding for government programs to help workers who have lost their jobs. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said her department has a budget of $72 billion, with $16 billion of that going toward worker education and retraining programs. The Small Business Administration's Barreto contradicted critics, including Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who say Bush is cutting his agency's budget. "We are asking for a 30% increase in budget authority, from $9.5 billion to $12.5 billion," Barreto said. "Only in Washington could a 30% increase be called a cut."   Back to Original Article: News You Can Use   Continue with: Econ Team Argues Bush Policies To Create Jobs Japan economy surges in Oct-Dec on strong exports Unchecked euro rise would hit recovery-German banks
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