Bush Attacks Clinton Policy on Defense Cuts

As news of a dipping economy brought new signs of political peril, President Bush did his best Thursday on a trip to Southern California to deflect voters’ concerns, charging that defense cuts endorsed by his Democratic rival could cost the industry 1 million jobs.

Bush acknowledged that “responsible� defense cuts his Administration had approved had already left the region scarred. But he warned that further cuts advocated by Gov. Bill Clinton could touch off “a shock wave� in the state’s economy.

“You’d feel it first,� he assured workers at Odetics Inc., an Anaheim robotics firm. He sarcastically warned that “reckless� Democratic defense cuts would benefit only “the mothball industry.�

On a day when federal figures showed economic growth slowing, Bush’s bid to stir regional anxieties added a new chapter to the concerted Republican effort questioning whether Clinton should be trusted to take charge of the nation.

As hard as times may be in Southern California, Bush suggested, an economy under Clinton’s stewardship would only be worse. He also warned against a Democratic team whose calls for change included efforts to “change the subject� on national defense.

Bush continues to insist that he is not yet operating in “campaign mode.� He still chooses not to utter his rival’s name. But his blunt attack on Clinton Thursday made clear that he has begun to heed worried advisers’ counsel to leave no holds barred.

Not only has Bush agreed to all but cancel a Maine vacation next month that was to have preceded the Republican National Convention, aides said, but he is likely to scrap plans to return to his home there for a pre-Labor Day break.

Senior officials credited Bush’s son, George W. Bush, with “bending a lot of ears� in an effort to jolt his father and the campaign into more aggressive action.

Indications that the warnings had struck a nerve came as Bush went to new lengths throughout the day to appeal to wavering voters. As he arrived in Southern California, he carried with him a plan designed to send a new signal of concern for Los Angeles and its urban woes.

A White House statement issued shortly after Bush touched down at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station outlined a variety of new small-scale federal efforts to promote the recovery of riot-torn areas.

Among the programs are an offer of a 15-month interest holiday to merchants who take out small business loans and agree to rebuild in areas affected by the violence. Another features new storefront operations to advise citizens how they might benefit from federal programs.

A White House spokeswoman said Bush had telephoned Gov. Pete Wilson to advise him about the new phase of federal assistance and was trying to reach Mayor Tom Bradley. A senior Administration official said the program would not involve significant new federal spending.

Earlier, Bush surprised some aides by telling Texas voters in a radio interview from Air Force One that he would reconsider his Administration’s opposition to a proposed sale of F-16 jet fighters to Taiwan. The ban had created hostility in Texas, where manufacturer General Dynamics has been hurt by White House-backed defense budget cuts.

General Dynamics announced Wednesday that it would lay off 5,800 workers in Texas by the end of 1994 because of cuts in F-16 production.

The President brought no obvious financial plums to Orange County, where campaign strategists say he must make an effort to win back even those conservative Republicans who should be part of his political base.

Instead, his grim rendering of the damage Democrats might inflict on national defense and the economy served as a warning of what a change in Administrations could bring.

And while many later described themselves as undecided, the wildly cheering Odetics’ employees who formed Bush’s audience provided the kind of vocal accompaniment for which White House image-makers have long been searching.

Odetics has been making a successful transition away from defense work, but still depends on the government for 37% of its revenues.

Encouraged in advance by the company’s management, the employees--wearing painter-style hats emblazoned with the slogan “Attitude�--roared as Bush reaffirmed Ronald Reagan’s motto of “peace through strength.�

“The defense budget is more than a piggy bank for folks who want to get busy beating swords into pork barrels,� he said.

Bush himself has called for $50 billion in defense cuts over the next four years. But he and senior Administration officials traveling with him on the two-day campaign trip to California and Texas described those cuts as “responsible� as compared to the steeper and “reckless� cuts Clinton has endorsed.

Robert E. Grady, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that Bush’s proposal would reduce actual budget outlays on defense by only $19 billion in the next four years. The Clinton plan, he contended, would reduce those outlays by an additional $60 billion.

Following a standard Pentagon formula, Bush charged that “cuts of that magnitude would cost workers in the defense industry as many as 1 million jobs.� The same formula applied to the Bush budget would result in defense-related job losses of about 350,000.

Even as Bush sought to focus new scrutiny on Clinton’s plans for the economy, he resorted to other tactics to insulate himself against an expected wave of criticism following the government’s release of statistics showing the economy grew in the second quarter at a rate of just 1.4%.

In appearances in California and in Texas, Bush acknowledged his disappointment at the news. But he chose the release date to fling his sharpest criticism in weeks at a Congress he blamed for costly inaction on the economic growth proposals he put forward in late January.

“Don’t hold the American economy hostage to politics!� he urged in Anaheim. “Tell them to vote for a recovery program and put America back to work now!�

Bush’s trip to Southern California was acknowledged to be a political voyage whose costs are borne by his reelection campaign. He traveled first Thursday to Waxahachie, Tex., on what was billed an “official� visit whose costs were borne by taxpayers.

But there was little difference in tone as the President railed against a Democratic-controlled Congress he charged had “dillied and dallied� on the economy.

The Texas portion of the trip was designed to affirm Bush’s commitment to the controversial $8.2 billion Texas-based superconducting super-collider project whose future lies in jeopardy after a stunning 232-181 House vote last month to cut off funding for the facility.

Clinton also supports funding of the atom smasher, which is planned as a pair of 54-mile underground rings designed to help physicists study the basic forces of nature. But Bush nevertheless sought to cast his battle with congressional Democrats as a fight between “patrons of the past and architects of the future.�

His avowal of faith also reached toward new rhetorical extremes. He assured a cheering crowd of employees that he regarded the resource as so important that it ranked among “the Louvre, the pyramids and Niagara Falls all rolled into one.�

The addresses to audiences made up of employees paying tribute to the President on company time were indicative of a Bush campaign strategy that seems to prefer such low-risk forays. But they could add to the impression of a President unwilling to confront ordinary voters and their concerns.

Although Bush spent the night at the Century Plaza hotel, he chose not to make any public campaign appearances in Los Angeles itself. Instead, he traveled to Bel Air to attend two Republican party fund-raisers expected to net well over $1 million.