Better times near, Bush officials tell state areas hurting for jobs

By Beth Kaiman and David Postman
Seattle Times staff reporters

	TED S. WARREN / AP The officials who visited Richland yesterday, from left, are Rep. Doc Hastings, Treasury Secretary John Snow, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Commerce chief Don Evans and Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto.
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Three members of President Bush's Cabinet yesterday rode a bus through some of the country's highest unemployment areas, saying better times are close at hand because of the president's tax cuts, job-training programs and economic policies.

"You have to go where the problems are," Commerce Secretary Don Evans said in Richland before the Northwest tour headed to Yakima. Evans and his colleagues started the day in Spokane and today will be in Portland and Eugene, Ore.

Democrats put on their own Northwest tour, using high job-loss numbers as a backdrop to attack Bush's economic policies.

The two sides didn't meet up. But Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe was in Portland, Spokane and Seattle, saying any sign of an improved economy was due to Democratic governors in Washington state and Oregon, not Bush.

Evans, Treasury Secretary John Snow, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto took their "Jobs and Growth" bus tour through Washington state communities where economic recovery has been slow in agriculture and manufacturing.

	GORDON KING / YAKIMA HERALD REPUBLIC Don Evans, center, talked job training and tax relief in Yakima with more than 100 people, including business owners, Republican activists and state employees.

The focus was on job creation as they visited two biomedical companies in Spokane; held a round table with women business owners in Richland; and, over taquitos, rice and beans, talked job training and tax relief in Yakima with more than 100 people, including business owners, Republican activists and state employees.

"We want to make those tax cuts permanent because we believe in you," Barreto told the crowd at El Portón restaurant.

Snow said the economy is working well in broad terms — for instance, in low interest rates and a strong housing market. "But what really counts is whether you see it," Snow said.

Washington and Oregon have been among the states hit hardest by unemployment. Washington has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation and Oregon ranks second, according to December figures.

In Washington, Yakima and the Tri-Cities remain among the areas with the highest rate of unemployed workers.

But meeting with unemployed workers was not part of the agenda.

"We talk to them all the time," Chao said.

The bus tour, while not a campaign event, comes as the Bush re-election campaign ramps up.

McAuliffe's "Democrats Stand for Jobs" tour was billed as a way for him, Gov. Gary Locke and Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender to "talk with local workers who have been harmed by the Bush administration's failed economic policies."

"Three Cabinet secretaries are here in our state trying to change public opinion," Locke said. "But the economic problems America faces go well beyond public-opinion polls. Our challenges run much deeper than spin and slogans and sound bites."

One laid-off worker joined Democrats at the Seattle Labor Temple. Wilma Ralls, a former systems analyst at Paccar, said she has been out of work for two years.

"I don't think it's a problem of people taking our jobs away from us as much as it is a trade policy we need to look at," she said. "We can't continue to let so much money flow out of our country."

That put Ralls in the midst of a debate that has roiled the party's candidates for the presidential nominee.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the front-running Democratic candidate, is a strong supporter of free trade. In recent days, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has criticized Kerry and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"We have had a very lively debate within our party on trade," McAuliffe said. "Obviously, there is a key concern in this country about loss of jobs."

McAuliffe said that when the party settles on a nominee there will be discussions about trade, and the party and nominee will agree on an economic platform that includes "an evaluation of our trade policies."

"Right now we have candidates who have a divergence of views on trade," he said. "Let's let the voters have their say."

Evans rejected Democrats' charge that the tour was a Bush campaign event.

"I've been traveling across America for three years. This was not politically chosen," he said.

The cities were chosen, he said, "because we care about these people."

In the Yakima restaurant, Mike Leita, a Republican activist, said the president's tax cuts are working and have translated into better business at the hardware store he co-owns.

"I want them (tax cuts) made permanent," he said.

Evans said the administration recognizes that recovery has been slower in the Northwest than in many parts of the country. He said it was important to point out to Washington residents the potential benefits of Bush's programs.

"You're honest with them in the state," he said of citizens he met yesterday. "You don't want to give people false hope."

Beth Kaiman: 206-464-2441 bkaiman@seattletimes.com; David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com

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