By Mary Lynn F. Jones and Noelle Straub

Angered by their exclusion from President Bush's economic summit, Democratic members of Congress Tuesday dismissed the forum as a public relations stunt, even as Republicans praised it as a valuable opportunity for the administration to listen to "real Americans."

But no member of Congress from either party joined the more than 200 participants chosen by the White House for the hastily arranged half-day session.

Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), who sits on the Banking, Budget and Joint Economic committees, criticized the forum, held in Waco, Texas, near the president's ranch.

Corzine, the former head of Goldman Sachs, told reporters in a conference call:

"If you pick all members that generally are in agreement with the policy and they come out and say, 'We're right behind you, Mr. President, and we're going to exactly recommend what you already put on the table,' that's not a real policy debate. It's not a policy forum that's going to lead to positive results." Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), ranking member of the Budget Committee, joined Corzine in the same call, noting that Democrats have called for an economic summit for months, "one that brings everybody to the table and puts everything on the table."

But he added, "Unfortunately, we had one today, but it didn't do either of those things."

Bush aides hastened to rebut complaints that critics of the administration's economic policies were excluded from the forum.

"The president believes that the best solutions are found outside Washington, and that's why he wants to hear directly from working Americans and small investors," Deputy White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

Even as the debate ensued, the Federal Reserve Board, meeting in Washington, left its key borrowing rate unchanged at 1.75 percent, while leaving the door open to future rate cuts.

The spate of economic news gave Wall Street no comfort, with the Dow-Jones Industrial Average closing at 8,482, down 206.50 points for the day.

Bush also used the forum to announce that he would not release $5.1 billion ostensibly earmarked for combating terrorism. But some of the funds would have gone to programs unrelated to homeland security.

Some administration officials said Bush had blocked the money as a signal to Congress to rein in spending.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who chaired a panel on Economic Recovery and Job Creation, said Tuesday's session was "not about official Washington coming to preach. ... This is a chance for us to listen, to have an open discussion about our economy, and for Washington to get a dose of common sense from you."

Still, Rep. Bob Matsui (D-Calif.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said members of Congress should have been included in the forum. "We're the ones who are going to have to implement anything that comes out of it," he said. "We should be involved."

Matsui dismissed the summit as a "P.R. gimmick" and said it was more about pushing special interests and a permanent tax cut than spurring confidence in the economy and the stock market.

Matsui also contrasted the Bush effort with the economic forum Bill Clinton held in 1992 in Little Rock, Ark., as president-elect. Matsui called that forum "a real discussion of substance."

Some members of Congress had joined in that meeting, which also occurred at a time when the economy appeared to be in trouble.

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), who had asked Bush to hold an economic summit months ago, termed Tuesday's event "a one-sided reaffirmation of a failed economic policy."

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who chairs the Small Business Committee and is also a member of the Finance Committee, called it "a made-for-television summit, not the real work of getting our economy back on track."

Kerry, a possible presidential contender in 2004, added: "If the president were interested in doing more than trying to rid himself of the perception that he's asleep at the economic switch, he might have actually engaged the policymakers who put their credibility on the line in 1993 to balance the budget and grow the economy that President Bush's father had neglected and mismanaged."

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he wasn't bothered specifically about not being included Tuesday, but voiced concern that Bush has not held a meeting with members on the economy.

"That sort of reaching out hasn't happened, certainly not on a bipartisan basis," he said.

Smith co-chairs the New Democrat Coalition, which was founded in 1997 to advocate fiscal responsibility. The group sent a letter to Bush on July 15 requesting a meeting with him and his economic team but has yet to get a response.

Smith said that fits a pattern of the Bush White House excluding members of Congress from providing their input on many issues. "The bipartisanship promised during the transition hasn't materialized," he said.

But Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said in a pre-summit statement that the meeting included "real Americans from all walks of life."

The GOP leader released a memo listing five steps Bush and the GOP have taken to improve the economy. He also accused the Senate Democratic leadership of failing to put forward a plan of their own to improve the economy.

Christin Tinsworth, a spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee, compared the summit to a town hall meeting. "I'm not sure it requires having members of Congress to be there for the president to listen to his constituents," she said.

And Jill Gerber, a spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee, said ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) "feels there's a balanced representation of various economic interests and perspectives."

Still, some Republicans agreed with Democrats that the summit would have little lasting impact.

Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Treasury Department in the first Bush administration, said the president didn't need to invite members.

"The president sees them all the time," said Bartlett, now a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. "It isn't as if they lack the opportunity to convey their points of view. The executive branch ought to be able to do something on its own."

But Bartlett added that he doesn't expect much to come out of the summit. "These kinds of conferences are never productive. They're always a waste of time," he said.