-Caveat Lector- washingtonpost.com
For Many Americans, It's the Economy Concerns About Rising Prices and Unemployment Outweigh the War in Iraq By William Booth Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, March 23, 2003; Page A04 SEATTLE -- Frank Miller drives a truck for a living, moving cargo from the port, paid by the trip. Work is slow and getting slower. "I think I'm your typical American," Miller said. "All we talk about is the war. But all I think about is my paycheck." Lisa Kwon is sympathetic. She is a loan officer at a bank. Kwon sees couples living on credit cards. "I don't know what to think about Iraq," she said. "But after this is over, the economy has got to bounce back, right?" Kwon says it with hope. She is watching her own retirement and investment accounts shrivel. "It's scary," she said. "Terrorism isn't real to me. I'm sorry. But losing my savings is." Miller voted for George W. Bush. Kwon voted for Al Gore. Asked to name something the Congress or the Bush administration is doing to help the economy recover, both said the same thing: nothing from where they stood. As the country prepared for war last week, something else was bothering many Americans as much if not more: the economy. The stock market is jumpy. Consumer confidence, which drives spending, is flaccid. Jobs are harder to find. People who are laid off are more likely to stay that way longer. States are raising taxes and fees. The long-awaited recovery seems to keep receding into the future, delayed to next month or next quarter or next year. This could be trouble for President Bush, whose advisers are counting on an economic rebound in the months after the Iraq war is completed. Here in Seattle, some people interviewed confess they didn't want to appear to be whining about their 401(k)s as U.S. soldiers prepared for battle. But the pollsters hear it, like a constant bass note in a symphony. In a Washington Post/ABC News survey conducted last month, seven in 10 people described the nation's economy as "not so good" or "poor." A recent Gallup poll found 67 percent of Americans thought the economy was going to get worse, which was a 10-year record. While Bush's approval ratings remain high on Iraq and terrorism, 49 percent of those who answered the Post poll disapproved of the way the president is handling the economy. Democrats are clearly looking for an advantage on the issue, and following Bush's State of the Union address in January, they picked not a member of Congress, but Washington's Gov. Gary Locke to make the Democratic rebuttal. Locke focused not on war, but the economy, arguing that there has been no recovery and no help for average Americans. Economic pain is spread around the nation, but Washington state has been battered more than most -- in part because Seattle and surrounding areas exploded with growth during the 1990s, led by companies such as Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. The Emerald City, with its reliance on trade, the Internet and Boeing Co., was dealt a triple whammy by a staggering Asian economy, the dot-com collapse and a string of airline bankruptcies accelerated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The state has lost more than 86,000 jobs since January 2001, 90 percent of them in the Seattle area. The Pacific Northwest, which includes Alaska and Oregon, has the highest joblessness in the nation. "A lot of people have been griping about the low pay and the economy in Seattle and the high unemployment rates. A lot of people are frustrated. Everyone's feeling the pinch," said Zoe Pilgrim, a math and science special education teacher at a Seattle middle school. She is the single mom of a 4-year-old boy and goes to graduate school at night. "Everything has gone up, the price of gas, everything," Pilgrim said. "It's really hard for me just to make ends meet. It's just crazy. I take home $1,700 a month, but my rent is $1,000. I'm thinking of moving. I am looking at alternatives." Pilgrim said she believes the president should share responsibility for the flagging economy. She also wonders why the federal government does not come to the aid of states like Washington, which is suffering from a $2.4 billion budget shortfall. "They see Bush mismanaging the economy," said Paul Berendt, head of the Washington state Democratic Party. "At a time when the little people are being asked to make sacrifices to support this war, he is giving a large tax cut to the rich. There's a huge feeling of resentment." But many people interviewed here appear ready to spread the blame around. "In our state we're blaming the governor," Pilgrim said of Locke. "We're wondering why we voted for him." Indeed, Locke's popularity has plummeted, along with the regional economy. "I understand the fear," said Tom Butler, a health care executive who answered a few questions on his way into REI to buy some ski equipment. "The economy just isn't coming around. The war makes everyone nervous. It's killing the stock market. Nobody can make plans." Butler said he voted for Bush, and supports the war, "but I understand the impression that Bush is not doing enough on the economy and that could hurt him," just like it hurt his father, he said. "People are concerned about the economy. People expect times to get better. The longer the war goes, [it] will not be good for the economy," said Randy Pepple, a Seattle-based Republican political consultant. Pepple said he doesn't think people blame Bush for the economi <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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