Where is our economic policy? Chief executives say the Bush Administration lacks a viable strategy for U.S. competitiveness

Chief Executive, The, June, 2005 by Peter Galuszka

Dick Cheney

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Vice President

He is seen as the keeper of the faith in Reaganomics and is a strong conservative voice.

Andrew H. Card Jr.

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Chief of staff

Was in first administration and maintains low visibility. But he's a powerful gatekeeper.

Karl Rove

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Advisor

Gained much policy clout as a result of his role in winning Bush re-election.

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What should the U.S. be doing to maintain its competitiveness?

The key there is maintaining the basic free-market orientation of the American economy--maintaining our innovativeness, our entrepreneurship, our spirit of enterprise. So maximizing the role of free market forces is the priority and using governmental powers to eliminate the impediments that get in the way of the good performance of the economy. [This involves] things like reducing the cost of litigation in the U.S., frivolous lawsuits, which we're trying to do, and things like maintaining open trade--the Central American Free Trade Agreement is very important to America. Putting in place an energy policy is awfully important.

So maintaining the fundamental structure of an open, resilient, innovative, enterprise-driven, market-based economy lies at the heart of our success. And, of course, you can't be successful unless you have a good education system, involving things like the No Child Left Behind policy from the President. A good immigration policy is so important, [as is] keeping our great academic centers strong and well-funded.

What can be done to get energy prices, including natural gas, in line?

We suffer from the fact that we haven't had a real focus on energy policy for a long time. And the neglect of energy policy--the fact that we haven't had one--has put us in a difficult position today. The best thing we can do, it seems to me, is adopt the sort of proposals that the President sent to Congress, such as modernizing our infrastructure, creating more incentives, developing our own resources and moving into the oil alternatives and making greater use of nuclear. The administration has sent all of those ideas to Congress, but I think we have to recognize that we are paying the price for a long period of time when the country didn't take the steps that should have been taken.

Critics say the U.S. has lost the competitive edge it once held in the Internet and broadband and that the Bush Administration is mostly ignoring this issue. What is your view?

The President has called for broad access to broadband, to deregulation of our telecommunications markets and the policies that would provide for innovation in the telecommunications space. It is one of the most important sources of innovation in the American economy. We need to get serious about moving towards a market-based telecommunications system because a market-based system is the only way to assure us that we are adapting in response to the best innovative technologies that are available.