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Bush directs staff to make plan
09/29/2001
By RON FOURNIER WASHINGTON — President Bush has directed his staff to produce an economic
revitalization package including additional tax cuts and a 13-week extension in
unemployment benefits, officials said Friday amid fresh evidence the economy was
stalled even before terrorist attacks. In a series of meetings this week with White House staff and lawmakers, Bush
effectively abandoned his view that the $1.3 trillion tax-cut package signed in
June was enough to revive America's financial problems. The U.S. economy is bordering on recession with thousands of airline industry
layoffs and a drop in consumer confidence since the Sept. 11 attacks. The
government announced Friday that the gross domestic product grew by an anemic
annual rate of 0.3 percent even before the assaults on Washington and New York.
Bush has told his economic team to produce an economic stimulus package that
includes tax cuts to individuals or businesses, perhaps both, according to
senior White House officials who participated in the talks. He also backed the
extension of unemployment benefits, and told advisers to look into job training
assistance. White House officials said Bush and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt,
D-Mo., met aboard Air Force One on Thursday during the president's trip to
Chicago. They discussed the need to boost the economy, and agreed to work
together despite differences on how to help laid-off workers, aides said. House Democrats want to extend the 26-week unemployment benefit program by 52
weeks. White House officials said that is unrealistic and have suggested a
13-week extension, Bush advisers said on condition of anonymity. Despite the split, Gephardt said Bush seemed sympathetic to the Democrats'
desire to help laid-off workers. ``He was interested in learning more about it. He was going, I think, to have
his aides and colleagues in the different departments look at these facts and
see what needed to be done. I think he is generally understanding of the
severity of the problem and the emergency nature of the problem,'' Gephardt
said. White House advisers were working on an economic plan over the weekend and
planned to have rough outlines ready for what has become a weekly Tuesday
morning meeting at the White House with Republican and Democratic congressional
leaders. ``There's no question that we need to act,'' Bush told his staff during one
midweek session, the first direct word of his intentions to back an economic
stimulus program. According to two participants, Bush also said, ``We've got to
make the economy grow.'' Democrats are also pushing for an 18-month extension in health insurance
benefits for airline industry employees laid off since the attacks. Bush, who signed an airline industry aid package last week, is not inclined
to target aid to laid-off airline employees, aides said. Instead, he favors
unemployment benefits and job training for all workers, they said. And the president might be open to helping all laid off workers pay health
insurance premiums, aides said, but it is too soon to tell if there is a need.
AP White House Correspondent