From: clarinews@clarinet.com (STEVEN HEILBRONNER)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.usa,clari.news.politics,clari.news.labor,clari.news.fighting,biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.top
Followup-to: biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Bush heads to Michigan to illustrate concern
Keywords: usa federal, government, politics, labor, fighting
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 21:19:19 PDT
Location: central states
ACategory: washington
Slugword: bush
Priority: major
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 563; Id: z0247; Sel: xxngw; Adate: 4-14-1215aed; Ver: sked
Codes: yngwrxx., ynp.rxc., ynu.rxx., ynfarxx.
Note: (Bush arrives Selfridge Air National Guard Base, 1:55 pm EDT; begins
 tour, Giddings & Lewis plant, Fraser, Mich., 2:20 pm)

	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- President Bush travels to Detroit Tuesday, hoping
to illustrate his concern for the wounded auto industry but offering no
extreme measures that would jolt the car companies out of their moribund
state.
	Bush will tell a gathering of machine tool workers in suburban Fraser
that Japan has increased imports of U.S. goods, buying more of
everything from glass and computer hardware to paper and other assorted
auto parts.
	Bush will discuss his refusal to improve mileage performance
standards for cars, which consumers want and Detroit opposes. He will
trumpet his so-called ``cash for klunkers'' program, in which motorists
can sell their old polluting cars to businesses. That helps the
environment and Detroit at the same time, he will claim.
	He will also unveil a new, though limited, job training program for
high school students.
	But the measures are not expected to do much, if anything, to revive
the auto industry, reeling from a deep recession in which even top
executives have seen company boards cut their salaries and benefits.
	In January, Bush, along with executives of the auto industry,
traveled to Japan in an effort to persuade Tokyo to increase U.S.
imports. The Japanese agreed to lower trade restrictions on select U.S.
items, such as mainframe computers and automobiles.
	White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Monday that exports of U.
S. auto parts to Japan have increased as a result of the Tokyo summit.
	One measure certain not to endear himself to the auto workers and
other laborers was his decision to sign, on Monday, a directive that
prevents unions from using the dues of non-union employees for political
activities or candidates that those workers oppose.
	The decree comes more than three years after the Supreme Court ruled
that workers may withhold a portion of their dues for political
purposes.
	But the directive angered labor leaders, who said Monday it is a
clear attempt to weaken Democratic Party candidates, usually supported
heavily with union money.
	Bush's one-day trip, including a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner
at a posh Detroit hotel, will mark the second time the president has
visited Michigan since last month and the first time since he won the
March 17 primary, defeating challenger Patrick Buchanan by a three-to-
one margin.
	The trip also marks the first time Bush travels under a self-imposed
directive.
	Last week, Bush, hoping to highlight the sleaze factor on Capitol
Hill, told his staff that business trips he takes involving ``political''
activities, such as fund-raisers, should be entirely paid for by the
Bush/Quayle '92 campaign.
	Previously, the White House arrived at a complicated formula in which
part of his air fare and expenses were paid for by the campaign based on
the amount of time or the number of events he spent campaigning.
	The campaign reimbursement, even at 100 percent, does not come close
to a full accounting of Bush's costs, which run hundreds of thousands of
dollars a day. Lawmakers have feasted on the subject in recent weeks to
deflect criticism over the House check-bouncing and post office
scandals.
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