WASHINGTON – President Bush (search) will host a conference Dec. 15-16 to promote top items on his economic agenda, including overhauls of Social Security (search) and the tax code, restraining federal spending and improving health care and education.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney (search), Cabinet members and outside business leaders will participate in the forum at the White House, said spokesman Scott McClellan.
Roughly a half-dozen panels will tackle various issues to ensure "America is the best place in the world to do business and how we secure our economic future for our children and grandchildren in this time of change."
"The conference will be opportunity to discuss what we must do to keep our economy growing and to make sure America remains the most competitive economy in the world," McClellan said.
The forum is not an effort to gather fresh ideas on pushing economic recovery. Rather, it is a way of advancing Bush's own agenda, which also includes curbing "frivolous lawsuits."
The outside experts will include corporate and small business leaders, McClellan said. He did not mention whether workers or union leaders will be included, but said the invitees were still being ironed out.
Bush hosted an economic conference in Waco, Texas, in August 2002 where workers, investors and business leaders poured out their anxieties about lost jobs, falling stock prices and the spread of corporate corruption.
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