‘Ownership Society’ is Coming Theme

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The New York Sun

Restraining lawsuits, controlling health-care costs, and encouraging free trade will be among President Bush’s economic policy priorities if elected to a second term, one of the president’s top advisers said yesterday.


In remarks at a breakfast for the New Hampshire delegation, the chairman of the National Economic Council, Stephen Friedman, offered a preview of Mr. Bush’s acceptance speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention.


Mr. Friedman, formerly an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, said the tax cuts sponsored by Mr. Bush in 2001 and 2003 are helping the economy recover from a recession that the president inherited when he took office.


He said the president’s proposals to limit personal-injury lawsuits, contain rising health insurance premiums, and lower trade barriers would further spur growth and create jobs.


“We’re going to talk a lot about what he calls an ‘ownership society’ as part of an aggressive agenda for this second term,” said a spokesman for Bush-Cheney ’04, Kevin Madden.


Although Mr. Friedman did not go into detail, Mr. Bush has previously proposed to cap the non-economic damages awarded by juries and prevent plaintiffs’ attorneys from “shopping” for friendly jurisdictions in which to try their cases.


To contain health costs, Mr. Bush proposes to create tax-free “health savings accounts,” which consumers could use to buy low-premium, high-deductible insurance policies that would be portable from one employer to another.


The president also argues that America should encourage rather than restrict free international trade.


“He basically says, in an optimistic way, with a level playing field we can compete with anyone else in the world,” Mr. Friedman told delegates at the InterContinental The Barclay hotel.


Mr. Bush himself previewed some of these ideas yesterday in a radio interview, noting that people change jobs more often than they used to, and touting “your own health care account” and a “personal savings account as part of Social Security.”


Democrats responded by criticizing Mr. Bush’s record on health care, saying the number of uninsured Americans has grown by 5 million since he took office and health premiums are up 40%.


“Try telling people in my district – southeastern Queens – that the Republicans are compassionate,” Rep. Gregory Meeks said. “Tell that to the people who are looking at pink slips, tell that to people who need community development, tell that to people who get prescriptions who try to cut the pills in half to last longer.”


Also yesterday, Republican senators at a panel discussion said they expect the president would continue a conservative domestic agenda at home and a “bold” style abroad if elected to a second term.


“There will be a domestic agenda, but it will be limited,” said Senator Kyl of Arizona, who chairs the Republican Policy Committee, at the event organized by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution.


The panel warned that the president will face the constraints of a large budget deficit and a thinly-stretched military.


“Clearly something is going to have to be done … about discretionary spending,” said a former senator of Tennessee, Fred Thompson, who is now an American Enterprise Institute scholar.


He predicted a second Bush administration would eschew policies that run against the conservative grain, such as the costly prescription drug benefit and steel tariffs.


“I would like to think that … in the second term he would learn from the mistakes that were made and stick to his basic instincts,” he said.


He also predicted a bipartisan push for increased military spending.


Calling Mr. Bush’s tax cuts and foreign policy “bold to the point of radical,” a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, David Gergen, agreed that the president would continue his style even if the election results were to be once again closely divided.


“Compared to John Kerry, he is a bit of a gambler,” Mr. Gergen said. “He is very change-oriented. He is willing to stake great deal on what he thinks is a big deal.”


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