Washington — Is this government by self-fulfilling prophecies of doom we're having these days, or what?
For weeks, we've heard President Bush bad-mouth the economy. "Our economy is beginning to sputter," he told us.
Also, "We got an issue with our economy." And, "You know better than me that our economy is slowing down." And, without apparent irony, "Americans are hearing, and some feeling, the economic slowdown."
As Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said, "Despite the advice of (Fed) Chairman (Alan) Greenspan and economists that we need to restore consumer confidence, the president has talked down the economy in an effort to talk up his tax cut. It appears that when President Bush looks at the economy he doesn't see the doughnut, he just sees the hole."
This consumer confidence thing is always so frustrating to hear, isn't it? You get the idea that, if we'd all just decide to be confident, things would look up. By a simple mood change, we could save our own portfolios. But how the heck can we feel confident if we're hearing doom from our leadership all the time?
When public actions can influence matters, you can't help looking for some explanation as to why the president would be talking so bleakly about the economy especially since this president has told us he considers it his role to lift our spirits. As one observer put it, the explanation is pretty simple: Any mention by Bush of the economic downturn is followed immediately by two words tax cuts.
You may remember that during the campaign, Bush said tax cuts were in order because the economy was doing so well and the people deserved their money back. But that was then and now is now: you have to use the material at hand.
Check out the similar approach to energy policy. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham responded to California's electricity problems by warning that the entire nation faces a life-changing energy crisis.
The president weighed in: "We've got a problem with energy in America. Our demand is increasing but our supplies aren't. And it doesn't take much economics to figure out what'll happen.
"And we're going to do something about it. This is going to be a very practical administration. We will view problems, analyze them, and deal with them."
If this isn't a prescription for drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, I don't know what is. And that of course is the president's proposal a very controversial one, in view of its environmental consequences.
Talking up an energy crisis was also useful in moving away from declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant: With electric-generation capacity increasingly seen as a problem, that would no longer be appropriate. No matter that the sudden switch left Christine Todd Whitman, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, twisting in the wind.
You seize your moments even if you're assisting in their creation. Similar ill winds blew for Secretary of State Colin Powell when presidential policy turned to bad-mouthing on yet another topic diplomatic efforts toward roguish North Korea.
South Korean President Kim Dae Jung has been pursuing a "sunshine policy" in hopes of breaking the icy deadlock with his northern neighbor. Kim Dae Jung recently visited Washington. The day before that visit, Secretary Powell announced his intentions to resume the Clinton administration's diplomatic efforts to convince North Korea's Kim Jong Il to swear off nuclear weapons.
But rapprochement turned out not to be the order of the day. After all, if there were any actual progress in working things out with North Korea, one of the mainstays on the push for national missile defense would be weakened. His priorities clear, Bush all but snubbed Kim Dae Jung. There'll be no negotiations until the North Korean situation can be reviewed, he said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld allowed as how the Pentagon is now considering a broader missile defense system than the one that's been failing its tests so badly. A system that could attack "rogue" missiles (like North Korea's) just after launch, in mid-flight and on re-entry into the atmosphere. An old-fashioned arms-controller, Spurgeon Keeny of the Arms Control Assn., said Bush is "trying to build up the case for building an extremely expensive and provocative system that doesn't work it's madness."
I don't want to talk us all into political cynicism here, but you do have to wonder: Just how awful a thing would the president be willing to talk us into?
Geneva Overholser is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.
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