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American Morning
Activists Cliff May, Bob Beckel on Bush's Economic Strategy
Aired July 23, 2002 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again from yesterday, President Bush saying the economy now is fundamentally strong despite another dark day on Wall Street. The president says the markets will stabilize, but can the Bush administration restore confidence in the markets?
Let's "Sound Off." Today in Washington, former RNC Communications Director Cliff May is with us again this morning.
Cliff, how are you?
CLIFF MAY, FORMER RNC DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS: Good, Bill, how are you?
HEMMER: All right, doing fine. Thank you, sir.
Democratic political strategist Bob Beckel on the other side.
Bob, good morning, good to see you as well, my friend.
BOB BECKEL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, you too.
HEMMER: Hey, Cliff, what's the strategy from the White House? What's their plan to get us out of this mess?
MAY: Well don't think that it's up to the White House or the White House can simply get us out of this mess. We have markets in a bad situation. We don't want that to spread to the rest of the economy, doesn't have to. Every time you have a market correction or even a bad bear market, that doesn't mean you have a recession coming out of it. We don't want that.
What the investor eventually has to see is that the political response to this will be measured and smart -- not too much regulation, not too little, but just right. And there's fear right now, I think, of political profiteering on the part of Democrats. You've got some Democrats who are gleeful at this point thinking the worse the economy gets the better they'll do in November. That's a very dangerous attitude to take, because I think the voters will see through it.
There are other Democrats, not all, who are very anti-business and they don't want to cure this patient. They'd like to kill this patient. So I think the investor is going to be listening to Bush and to the administration; but more importantly, they'll see what actually comes through in terms of ways to sensibly reform the accounting practices that so badly need reformed.
HEMMER: And political profiteering, what about it, Bob, are there some out there who indeed are doing it?
BECKEL: Sure. I mean -- I'm sitting next to (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
MAY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BECKEL: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
HEMMER: You're saying Cliff's doing it.
BECKEL: Well, no, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) about Republicans is after they beat up on Clinton for eight years on White Water, now all of a sudden they've got the book of virtues out about isn't this just terrible. There's a thing to keep in mind here and that is, I think I mentioned this before, and by the way, Bill, that 401 to 201 was great, good line. I (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
HEMMER: I can't claim credit. We talked with a broker on the floor earlier today.
BECKEL: Well too bad.
HEMMER: It was his line but we stole it.
BECKEL: His loss. I got it.
But I'll tell you, here's the problem for the -- for the Republicans is it George Bush needs the war on terrorism back on the front page, it's not there. And there are a lot of people out there now, as we've talked over and over again about the number of people holding stocks in one form or another, and those people are going to go to the polls. And it's -- it is a rule in politics that what is true on August 1 is in the minds of voters the first Tuesday in November.
And I think there's a general sense, not that the Democrats -- they're trying to jump on this Harken thing with Bush's oil company. I don't think that's going to work. Cheney's another point. But I just think they don't think that Bush is up to the job. Maybe he could fight terrorism, but not the -- but not (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HEMMER: Let me get back to Cliff in a moment, but I think the point the Republicans are making is -- Dick Gephardt made a comment -- and quoting now from "Time" magazine -- he says, "If this thing plays out right, we could pick up 30 to 40 seats." Talking about the election first Tuesday in November. If that's the case, is this the time to start talking like that?
BECKEL: Well first of all, I mean if Dick says -- I know he said that. He must have had a late night. I mean I -- you'd have to be in damn near depression in order to get a 30 or 40 seat pickup. So I don't buy into that. But I do think there are enough marginal Republicans out there now becoming more marginal.
Look, I look at polls every day and it doesn't matter whether it's the Democrats or the Republicans, who's ever in office in the White House suffers from the economy and the economy is hurting Republicans across the trenches.
MAY: Again, and because of that the fear may be that some Democrats may say let's not do anything to fix it. However, if you look at the same polls that my friend, Bob, is talking about, Republicans are trusted more than Democrats by a 10-point margin to fix what's wrong with the economy. And people do understand that the abuses now coming to light took place in the previous administration. White Water was an example of corporate fraud. About a dozen people went to jail, including a sitting governor.
We now -- we had an erosion of ethics in the 1980s. What we now need to do is fix what's broken. And what's broken is it's got to be clear that when a corporate executive gives out numbers for his company those numbers are real, the profitability is right, the expenses are correct, there's got to be what they call transparency.
HEMMER: And, Cliff,...
MAY: That's what we've got to do and not again politically profiteer.
HEMMER: If it gets passed and if it's signed into law and all indications right now in the fact that's going to happen, but the question after that is whether or not that it works and has a true impact. But what I want to know, Cliff, is that the criticism starts to come out right now because President Bush talks about the economy and the market goes down again and again. We've seen it three times in the past week and a half. Why is there and is there someone in Washington that can represent the administration, the public, like Robert Rubin in the -- did during the Clinton administration say it is in control because I am in control?
MAY: I don't think the government is or was ever in control of the free market economy. There are some people who would like the government to take control. As soon as investors think the government is going to take control of the economy, then watch it tank. Look, the kind of budgeting that Congress has been doing, both parties for I don't know how many years, that's the kind of thing the SEC would prosecute for in a New York minute.
So the -- I don't think that what restores confidence is the feeling that we've got politicians in control. What people understand I think is that you've got people -- listen, you've got politicians like James Traficant who are corrupt. Doesn't mean all politicians are corrupt. You've got doctors like Harold Shipman who are killing their patients. Doesn't mean all doctors kill their patients. And you've got some bad apples in the corporate community. That doesn't mean what we now need are anti-business practices.
HEMMER: Point well taken. I'm running out of time.
Bob, up against the clock, 10 seconds.
BECKEL: OK. I'll give it to you fast. He talks about Democrats trying to stall these measures. The Democratic Senate passed a much stronger bill on corporate responsibility than the Republican-led House and it is the Republicans who are trying to protect the business community.
The last thing -- by the way, you said the virtues lost in the '80s. I couldn't agree with you more, Cliff. But also, I remember when Bob Rubin walked down the steps of the Treasury Department during a particularly dangerous economic situation and there was a sense of trust and calmness about it. And I mean I don't know who they'd send out to front the Treasury Department right now.
HEMMER: We've got to run.
BECKEL: I mean but it ain't anybody they got now.
HEMMER: Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Cliff. Talk again later in the week.
MAY: Thank you.
HEMMER: OK, men?
MAY: OK, Bill.
HEMMER: Many thanks.
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