The Texas economic forum provided no consensus on how to restore consumer confidence or spur economic growth. Underscoring the absence of a clear message was President Bush’s racing from one session to another, promising that “we will look at the summaries”.

While his aides struggled to cast the half-day session at Baylor University in Waco as one of high seriousness and substance, Bush thanked his hosts “for putting on a great show”. The resemblance to a campaign event was unmistakable: It ended with a stump speech, everybody cheered and stood, and the band struck up “Stars and Stripes Forever”.

Although business executives and owners who made up the largest bloc of attendees talked of ways to restore investor confidence, the stock market seemed to hardly notice the event. The broad market was slightly higher in early afternoon, then sagged after a Federal Reserve decision to leave short-term interest rates unchanged.

Bush used his wrap-up comments — mostly a list of his accomplishments and goals — to pick a new fight with Congress, announcing he was rejecting $5.1 billion in contingency funds authorised in an emergency spending bill for anti-terrorism programs.

He said some of the spending wasn’t related to the war on terrorism or consistent with budget discipline. “My administration will spend what is truly needed and not a dollar more,” he declared. Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the disagreement is a peripheral one, at best.

“It’s perfectly reasonable for him to have a dispute with Congress over whether to spend this money, but is ludicrous to elevate it to a major proposal at an economic forum to try to reassure the country about his management of the economy,” Mann said.

The Waco forum “really ended up being just a pep rally”, Mann added.

The president, who is not fond of long academic discussions, and Vice President Dick Cheney briskly made the rounds among eight panels led by various Cabinet secretaries.

“I can assure you that, even though I won’t be sitting through every single moment of the seminar, nor will the vice president, we will look at the summaries, we will look at any ideas that come out and determine whether or not there’s more government can do,” he said.

The main difference between Bush’s forum and those sponsored by former President Clinton “is that Bill Clinton enjoyed doing these kinds of things. I don’t think that George Bush does,” said Bruce Bartlett, an economist with the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis who was an advisor to the first President Bush.

While recommendations were diverse, most dealt with familiar themes: less government regulation, permanent tax cuts, a simpler tax code, tougher treatment of corporate offenders, and longer-term horizons for stock investors. A common thread from the hand-picked attendees: repeated references to the fundamental soundness of the US economy and praise for the president.

Bush promised to ponder what he’d heard, while reminding his audience he wasn’t to blame for the difficulties. “There’s no question our economy has been challenged by a recession that was beginning when we took office,” Bush said.

“We have heard from Americans who are concerned but not discouraged. ... We share a sense of optimism about America,” he asserted. — Associated Press