Jobless trouble Reagan

Press, 15 October 1982, Page 8

Jobless trouble Reagan

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Ronald Reagan has acknowledged that his handling of the economy could be a perilous issue for his Republican Party in next month's Congressional elections.

Without referring directly to the elections on November 2, Mr Reagan conceded in a television speech yesterday, that American unemployment was intolerably high.

He said be was troubled by “the dark cloud of unemployment that hangs over the lives of 11 million of our friends, neighbours and family” — a reference to the 10.1 per cent jobless rate, the highest since 1941.

Public opinion polls have shown that the elections for congressmen and some state governors could turn into a partisan referendum on the President’s policies. An A.B.C. News/“Washington Post” poll published yesterday said that 64 per cent of American voters disapproved of Mr Reagan's handling of unemployment.

But Mr Reagan appealed to Americans to back his economic programme, saying that it had already brought improvements by reducing inflation, interest rates. Government spending, and taxes. “America is recovery bound, and the world knows it,” Mr Reagan declared. The party in control of the White House usually loses several seats in Congress in the mid-term elections as voter dissatisfaction with the President begins to ripen. Mr Reagan’s message yesterday was that his policies are working and Americans should “stay the course.” This is the Republican Party’s campaign slogan tailored to counter growing scepticism about his economic policies.

In an official Democratic response, Senator Donald Riegle, of Michigan, said: “The President says, ‘stay the course.’ This course has led to incredible economic problems for millions. “It’s as if these 11 million people out of work in the country didn’t exist,” Mr Riegle said, accusing the Reagan camp of being rich Americans with little understanding of the working man. The portrayal of Mr Reagan as an insensitive rich man’s President has rankled the Administration’s political strategists, and the President tried to deal with that issue yesterday. He adopted a folksy, sympathetic tone in reviewing the impact of economic problems. He quoted a letter he said he had received from a woman named “Judith” in Alabama, who wrote despairingly of the jobless situation and said she was unable to sleep at night. After reading parts of her letter aloud, Mr Reagan said: "Judith, I hear you. “Thjs pounding economic hangover America is suffering from didn’t come about overnight... We still have a long way to go before we restore our prosperity.”