| Home Page
News You Can Use
Bush Economic Team Under Fire Over Jobs Part two
Bush is trying to show that the economy is rebounding and that dramatic job gains are on the way. Yet there have been no clear signs of strong job production, and Bush's economic performance is under daily attack by Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, both senators.
Kerry, the front-runner to challenge Bush in the fall, called the president's economic policies "insane."
"What planet do they live on?" Edwards said after Mankiw told reporters that "outsourcing" U.S. jobs to India and elsewhere "is probably a plus for the economy in the long run" because it reduces costs for U.S. consumers and companies.
No matter that many mainstream economists agree with Mankiw - or that he has apologized for seeming to be insensitive to workers who have lost their jobs.
"Economists and non-economists speak very different languages," Mankiw, a Harvard economist, told the National Economist Club this week.
His remarks caused a firestorm that included a rare rebuke from the top House Republican, Speaker Dennis Hastert. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle predicted Mankiw would follow O'Neill and Lindsey out the door, although White House officials say the president stands by him. Six Democratic senators also sent Bush a letter lambasting the administration for both episodes.
Bush has tried to calm the dispute by telling audiences, "There are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas."
On Wednesday, he steered away from specific job projections, saying he was pleased that 366,000 new jobs have been added since August. "I think the economy's growing and I think it's going to get stronger," he said.
But critics suggest a general lack of appreciation by the administration that the current economic recovery is one of the weakest in history for job growth.
Democrats accuse Bush and his advisers of caring more about the stock market than the jobs market. They point to Feb. 6 remarks by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao after a report showing 112,000 jobs were created in January, fewer than the 150,000 that had been forecast. Economists called the report disappointing.
"The stock market is, after all, the final arbiter. And the stock market was very strong this morning in reaction to the news that we have just received," Chao told CNN.
Gene Sperling, a top economic adviser in the Clinton White House, said comments such as Mankiw's on outsourcing "struck a chord of vulnerability and sensitivity about the overall record and attitude of President Bush's economic polices."
"When somebody tells you the market will work it out sooner or later, the one thing you know is that they're talking about somebody else's job," Sperling said.
Continue with:
| 
