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Text File | 1992-10-19 | 5.7 KB | 129 lines

                ▒no                                                        ╚NATION, Page 14

COVER STORIES

A Clash of Visions


Clinton and Tsongas, one-on-one for the first time, debate their
plans for economic revival

By LAURENCE I. BARRETT and STANLEY W. CLOUD/CHICAGO


    Amid the furious negative ads Bill Clinton and Paul
Tsongas have been firing at each other, it is easy to forget
that a presidential campaign is supposed to be a contest over
ideas. In TV spots, Tsongas has accused his rival of pandering
and dishonesty, while Clinton has painted Tsongas as a
hard-hearted crypto-Republican. Lost in the din is the fact that
these two leading contenders for the Democratic nomination are
charting a new direction for their party, moving it away from
interest-group economics toward a new vision of American
competitiveness.

    The seriousness of that quest was underscored last week as
Tsongas and Clinton met in an unprecedented one-on-one debate
about economic issues arranged and moderated by TIME. Facing
each other across a wooden table in a small conference room at
Chicago's Midway Airport, the two rivals engaged in a
freewheeling, hourlong dialogue on whose ideas can best restore
the country's economic strength.

    For both candidates, the debate came at a crucial moment.
Clinton had just swept seven Southern- and Border-state contests
on Super Tuesday, bringing his estimated delegate count to 763
of the 2,145 needed for the nomination. Tsongas had carried only
his home state of Massachusetts, plus tiny Rhode Island and
Delaware, and was trailing Clinton by about 400 delegates. If
Clinton can follow up this week with strong victories in the
Illinois and Michigan primaries over Tsongas and ex-California
Governor Jerry Brown, his lead could be insurmountable. The
biggest threat to Clinton's momentum comes from a surprising
source. In Michigan, union members who regard Clinton and
Tsongas as hostile to organized labor have been flocking to
Brown's anti-Establishment banner. Brown could siphon off enough
votes from Clinton to slow him down, permitting Tsongas to fight
on next month in New York and Pennsylvania.

    Brown has made no pretense of matching the highly detailed
economic plans that Clinton and Tsongas debated last week. The
two candidates were in accord that national policy must shift
drastically away from consumption toward investment in
industrial innovation. They concurred that the Federal
Government must play a large role in fostering that change,
providing incentives for research and for ventures that can
transform technological breakthroughs into profitable products.
While diverging on details, both supported a capital-gains-tax
reduction to promote job creation.

    Sharp differences emerged. Tsongas depicted himself as the
champion of deferred gratification and Clinton as a politician
merely trying to win votes by promising tax relief for ordinary
Americans. Tsongas argued that the middle-class tax cut and the
tax credit for children younger than 18 -- both moves favored
by Clinton -- would divert $55 billion a year from investment.
In Tsongas' mashed metaphor, Clinton would waste precious
"bullets" that could be used to jump-start the economy's
manufacturing "engine." Only "when the engine runs," Tsongas
said, can the country afford "other kinds of things," such as
tax relief.

    Clinton forcefully disagreed, declaring that his meld of
tax cuts and his "laundry list" of targeted investment
incentives would promote manufacturing while still "helping
families raise their children and investing in education and
training." He also suggested that Tsongas was proposing merely
an updated version of Reaganomics. At times sounding defensive,
Clinton noted similarities between his plan and Tsongas' and
argued that the middle-class tax cut was only a minor part of
his economic program. By constantly attacking the tax cut,
Clinton said, Tsongas was appealing to upscale elitists -- a
group, he pointedly noted, that includes the editorial writers
who have endorsed his rival. Constant carping against the
middle-class tax reduction makes Tsongas seem indifferent to the
plight of the middle class. Yet many voters are likely to see
the truth in Tsongas' assertion that "if you wish to live well,
you must produce well."

    Despite the economic erudition displayed by both
candidates during the debate, the nasty sound-bite campaign was
waiting to resume in the real political world outside. Both men
were poised to unveil new negative ads. Near the end of their
discussion, Tsongas challenged Clinton to call a truce. "Bill,"
he said, "now that we are face to face, why don't we agree that
all the TV we do from here on in ((will be about)) what we stand
for?" Clinton declined, accusing Tsongas of posing in his ads
as the "only truth teller" among the candidates.

    Replied Tsongas: "I will take off any ad you don't like.
What could be more fair than that?" Clinton would consent only
to correct factual errors that were made in his ads. "I want to
continue sharpening the differences [between us] for the
American people," Clinton said.

    The time may not be too distant when both men will choose
to blur those differences. Some Democratic insiders are already
starting to speculate about a Clinton-Tsongas ticket (or, less
likely, a Tsongas-Clinton ticket). The prospect was touched upon
briefly, if noncommittally, by the candidates themselves near
the end of the TIME session. It is still too early for ticket
talk. Even so, the pair debating seriously last week -- as
opposed to the caricatures in campaign commercials -- could make
a team that would pose a stiff challenge to the Bush-Quayle
slate.