NATION, Page 30Hitting the Ground RunningBush dashes around Washington, but his first-week stumbles onabortion and taxes point to a rougher road aheadBy Michael Duffy
Barely two weeks in office, George Bush is already a victim of
his own success. As President-elect, he seemed to do no wrong: he
ad-libbed long speeches and looked good on television. His Cabinet
appointments, if not dazzling, were largely reassuring. His humor
was winning, and his informality a relief. Freed of his campaign
handlers, he seemed spontaneous, working without a net and keeping
his balance.
Nothing that good is forever. Last week Bush opened in the Big
Top and turned in a more mixed performance. The Capitol crowd that
liked his warm-up act took a dim view of some of his proposals. The
President briefly took control of his agenda, but then other events
-- abortion, taxes -- seized control of him. Bush hit the ground
running, but ran into trouble.
A President's first weeks in office are remembered more for
symbolism than for lasting achievements. Jimmy Carter turned the
White House thermostat down to 65 degrees F. Ronald Reagan slapped
a freeze on federal hiring. For Bush, the goal was to let Americans
know that the new President, unlike his predecessor, is active and
engaged. He phoned nearly two dozen foreign leaders, including
Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, to thank them for their
congratulatory notes. He gave Government employees two lectures
about ethics -- something hardly anyone opposes -- implying that
the store is now under stricter management. Bush also reversed
Reagan's deaf-ear strategy for handling the press, inviting several
reporters to dinner and asking others to the Oval Office on short
notice for impromptu question-and-answer sessions. Just in case
anyone missed the point about a fast start, the President even went
jogging.
To reassure financial markets that he is serious about
attacking the deficit, Bush held two hour-long sessions with
congressional leaders. His aides knew lawmakers would decline their
offer of a full-fledged budget summit with the White House, but the
feint did nothing to hurt the mood on Wall Street: the New York
Stock Exchange surged all week, closing Friday 87.5 points higher
than the week before. Moreover, after years of sleepy meetings with
Ronald Reagan, the Congressmen could barely contain their
enthusiasm for the more engaged Bush. Many seemed astonished that
a President could think and talk extemporaneously. "He didn't need
a prepared text," marveled Philadelphia Democrat Bill Gray.
But the Administration might have begun better if Bush or his
chief of staff, John Sununu, had written a tighter script. A series
of small but telling snafus sent the White House scrambling. The
day after Bush telephoned a cheer to right-to-life advocates massed
nearby on the Ellipse, the New York Times reported that Louis
Sullivan, the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services,
had privately told some Congressmen that he still believes in a
woman's right to an abortion. Sullivan, who had sent mixed signals
on abortion prior to his nomination in December, was summoned to
Sununu's West Wing office, then hurriedly dispatched to reassure
conservative Senators. The President, whose changing views on
abortion have been hard to parse, tried to clear up the controversy
by explaining, "He has supported my position 100%."
Events slipped further from Bush's control the next day, when
his old friend Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady proposed paying
for a $90 billion bailout of bankrupt savings and loan institutions
by slapping bank depositors with a 25 cents surcharge for every
$100 invested. It did not help matters that Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Alan Greenspan had told lawmakers the day before that the
country needed policies to encourage Americans to save. Fearing the
wrath of passbook holders, most of Capitol Hill immediately lined
up behind Republican Senator John Heinz's characterization of
Brady's idea as "boneheaded." So did bankers and thrift operators,
who predicted that new fees would drive depositors away.
Rather than jettisoning the plan, the White House curiously
decided to defend it. Chief of Staff Sununu said the surcharge
should be thought of as an insurance premium, not a tax. He refused
to yield to suggestions that the Brady plan passed Budget Director
Richard Darman's "duck" test for taxes. (Darman had told Congress
that if a revenue plan "looks" or "quacks" like a tax, it is a
tax.) Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater tried to calm things down by
saying the surcharge was only a trial balloon. But Bush would not
let the matter drop. Asked if the surcharge would be a tax, the
President replied, "Is it a tax when the person pays a fee to go
to Yosemite Park?"
By week's end, with few outside the White House in favor of
the idea, even Bush backed off, telling a Friday-morning press
conference that "it's a little absurd to be commenting on a facet,
a possible facet, of solving a problem when it hasn't even come to
me." But one senior Administration official was less defensive
about the flap. "Any fool could plainly see the general public
wouldn't stand for it," he said.
Some Bush aides criticized Brady for not knowing when to keep
quiet. The Washington Post reported that Brady had suggested the
surcharge to the Reagan Administration last month, and was told
then that it was a bad idea. Others tagged Sununu for putting Bush
on a light, no-substance schedule in the crucial first week of his
presidency -- creating a news vacuum that Sullivan and Brady
blundered into.
At times, it did appear that Bush lacked a coherent plan for
governing beyond crusading for gauzy themes. The turmoil over
Brady's proposal quickly overwhelmed the sketchy "theme" agenda
worked up for the President by outgoing political operative Robert
Teeter. Said a senior Administration official on Day 5: "If we have
a 100-day plan, I haven't seen it." Added another: "This is what
happens when you don't have a strategic thinker in the White
House."
But it is also what happens when a new President takes office
without an escape route from the fiscal cul-de-sac he has backed
himself into. Candidate Bush's no-new-taxes vow means he will not
be able to keep promises to propose spending for new programs in
education, child care and the war on drugs unless he breaks other
promises to protect the defense budget and farm subsidies. Asked
last week if his read-my-lips pledge would expire after one year,
Bush replied meekly, "I'd like it to be a four-year pledge." But
even he acknowledged that the kind of flap that followed the
savings and loan mess may be repeated when he tells a joint session
of Congress on Feb. 9 which promises he will keep and which ones
he will abandon. "Look, I don't expect it's all going to be
sweetness and harmony and light," the President said. "The minute
we get those proposals up there on Feb. 9, I expect we're going to
have other firestorms swirling around."
Bush's plan for the first weeks of his presidency is
essentially a holding action. He has invited Prime Minister Noboru
Takeshita to Washington this week for the first meeting with a
foreign leader. Bush will visit Korea and the People's Republic of
China after attending the Feb. 24 funeral of Japan's Emperor
Hirohito. Before then, the President will pop up to Canada on Feb.
10, the day after he delivers his budget speech on Capitol Hill.
Explained a senior official: "We're getting out of town."
If that skimpy agenda lacks a certain grit, it has plenty of
room built in for Bush to wrestle with budget proposals -- as well
as time to telephone friends, schedule last-minute lunches and
swear in new staff members. If most of Bush's specific plans will
not be unveiled for a few weeks, it is because Bush's aides have
