Some issues that will not be part of the White House's two-day economic summit this week

Author: Anchor Tess Vigeland, Reporter Jeff Tyler

Published: December 14, 2004

TESS VIGELAND, anchor:

Tomorrow, the White House begins a two-day summit on the economy. The guest list includes chief executives from companies like Home Depot, Dell and Time Warner.

They'll hear about the major themes of the Bush administration's economic plan for the next four years. MARKETPLACE's Jeff Tyler considers what might not be on the agenda.

JEFF TYLER reporting:

Guests will likely praise President Bush for his push to privatize some of Social Security, but administration critics anticipate little real dialogue about budget deficits or a proposed multibillion-dollar missile defense shield that skeptics say may never work. Speakers will probably stick close to the script; simplifying the tax code, limiting medical malpractice. But Bill Gale, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, expects one obvious omission.

Mr. BILL GALE (Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution): Simply making the tax cuts permanent would burn a very large fiscal hole, and the administration has proposed no method of paying for it. So I think that'll probably be the main dog that won't bark.

TYLER: Gale says Medicare reform probably won't make the agenda either. Still, he says that in the long run, Medicare's financial problems could be worse than Social Security's.

I'm Jeff Tyler for MARKETPLACE.