Bush Says He Seeks Middle Road

SAN JOSE —  In an ambitious speech reflecting on his 15 months in office, President Bush defined his agenda Tuesday as a results-oriented alternative to “big government or indifferent government.”

Reprising the call for “compassionate conservatism” central to his 2000 presidential campaign, Bush argued for an energetic but limited federal activism built on policies that enable “people and communities to help themselves and to help one another.”

“We need a government that is focused, effective and close to the people; a government that does a few things and does them well,” he added, echoing one of his familiar campaign lines.

The speech, delivered to an audience of civic leaders, marked Bush’s most systematic effort in months to define his broad view of government’s proper role--and to make the case that his course represents a kind of “third way” between traditional liberal and conservative approaches.

Aides said Bush believes he has given voters a clear sense of his underlying philosophy in foreign policy, but felt the need to do so on domestic affairs--before Democrats increase their efforts to define it for him.

“If you don’t tell people what you are trying to do, others will do so for you,” said one White House aide.

During his stop in Northern California, which followed appearances Tuesday in Los Angeles, Bush also spoke at a fund-raising luncheon for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. before returning to Washington.

Bush used the speech to define a vision of government that he said linked the disparate elements of his domestic agenda on issues ranging from education to welfare and health care. Bush framed his agenda as an alternative to overreliance on government or the free market to solve social problems.

Bush reiterated traditional conservative themes of limited government: “America doesn’t need more big government, and we’ve learned that more money is not always the answer.”

But he also emphasized his support for activist government in some areas and his belief that society cannot rely on the market to solve problems as much as many conservatives believe.

Bush offered two broad principles for federal action. He argued that Washington could play a critical role in setting standards and demanding results, even while giving authority for operating social programs to local officials, neighborhood charities and individuals.

The clearest example of this is the education reform legislation he steered through Congress last year. The law gives states more control over federal education dollars, but requires them to test students more often in reading and math and intervene in schools that persistently fail to improve.

Second, Bush argued that federal programs should act as catalysts, spurring local actions from individuals and communities.

“Government cannot solve every problem, but it can encourage people and communities to help themselves and to help one another,” he said, adding: “Often, the truest kind of compassion is to help citizens build lives of their own.”

Bush’s call to organize federal action around these principles marks the closest convergence between his “compassionate conservatism” and the “New Democrat” agenda forged by former President Clinton and other centrist Democrats, who presented their philosophy as a path between conventional liberalism and conservatism.

Indeed, Bush’s effort to place his agenda between “big government” and “indifferent government” closely echoed Clinton’s 1996 declaration that “the era of big government is over. But we cannot return to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves.”

Bruce Reed, Clinton’s top domestic policy advisor and now president of the Democratic Leadership Council, said that Bush’s vision shared common principles with the centrist Democrats. But he said the two sides are divided by two fundamental differences.

One is that Bush believes Washington should be involved in a narrower range of issues than most centrist Democrats. Second, and more important, Reed argued, the $1.3-trillion tax cut Bush pushed through Congress last year has denied government the funds to invest in programs that are successful.

Bush’s speech returned to the themes he used during his presidential campaign to court centrist voters as a self-proclaimed “different kind of Republican.”

Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, those themes had been largely muted in Bush’s presidency. Apart from education, his months in office were dominated by polarizing fights over taxes, energy and the environment that emphasized the more conventionally conservative aspects of Bush’s agenda--and led to a sharp division, along party lines, in public assessments of his job performance in his first months.

White House aides say the speech wasn’t inspired by immediate political concerns, but spotlighting moderate themes could have benefits for Bush. One is that his approval rating is again dropping among Democratic voters, who, like other Americans, rallied around him after Sept. 11. One recent GOP poll found that while Bush’s approval rating among Republicans remains at 95%, virtually unchanged since last fall, among Democrats it has dropped 23 percentage points to 56%.

The speech may also have been a preemptive strike in the brewing battle over the federal budget. Like Reed, congressional Democrats are poised to argue that the cost of Bush’s $1.35-trillion tax cut has denied government the funds to invest in such popular programs as education or a prescription drug plan for seniors.

Anticipating those arguments, Bush said it was more important to look at a program’s achievements, not its budget. “If a program is failing to serve people, it makes little difference if we spend twice as much or half as much. The measure of true compassion is results,” he said.

Applying his approach to international policy, Bush said he had proposed a 50% increase in the government’s main foreign aid programs over the next three years--but recipients are expected to end corruption, open markets and respect human rights and the rule of law.

“It is compassionate to increase our international aid. It is conservative to require the hard reforms that lead to prosperity and independence,” he said.

After his San Jose speech, Bush headlined a fund-raiser for Simon in nearby Santa Clara. It was the president’s second appearance on Simon’s behalf in two days.

The gubernatorial hopeful spoke briefly to the crowd of about 1,000 Republican faithful. Bush was also sparing in his political remarks, devoting most of his half-hour speech to an update on the war on terrorism at home and abroad.

Simon’s aides estimated that Tuesday’s $1,000-a-plate luncheon and a Monday night bash in Century City would yield more than $4.5 million--funds much needed by the slow-starting campaign.

Gerstenzang reported from San Jose, Brownstein from Washington. Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.