Jackson’s Budget Would Raise Taxes on Rich, Freeze Defense

Showing no sign of slowing down despite a series of primary defeats, the Rev. Jesse Jackson blasted both Michael S. Dukakis and President Reagan on Monday as he presented his five-year budget plan calling for increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations and a five-year freeze on military spending.

Jackson said his proposal represents jobs, peace and justice and an alternative to Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis’ “radically conservative commitment.” He said: “The next President must have a mandate from the people to reverse Reaganomics. I seek that mandate.”

The budget presentation clearly was delivered with an eye toward influencing the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in July. It also fit in with a pattern Jackson has established as he campaigns energetically for the California primary June 7.

‘Defying the Odds’

“We are winning every day,” he tells cheering throngs. “We are defying the odds, the political pundits, the press and the party.”

In numerical terms, Jackson has failed to claim a major primary or caucus since March 26, when he won a stunning upset over Dukakis and three other presidential aspirants in the Michigan caucuses, and he trails badly in polls taken preceding the California primary.

But Jackson is referring to a different victory, one that he said far exceeds mere delegate counts and voter totals. While he continues against the odds to seek his party’s presidential nomination, he also claims to be setting the agenda for national debate while laying groundwork for growing, long-term impact by his constituency on local and national politics.

In presenting his 18-page tax proposal, endorsed by economists from universities such as MIT, Yale and Princeton, Jackson called for dramatic funding increases for social programs, such as education, AIDS research, low- and moderate-income housing, a war on drugs, day care, health care and substantial outlays to spur the U.S. economy.

Evidence of Plan

Jackson, who for months has talked about the proposals as he campaigned in various states, said he issued the detailed package now to show that he has a plan and that his opponent, Dukakis, does not.

That was in keeping with his continued efforts to affect the Democratic agenda, and there is evidence that his message is having an effect as his campaign continues to play to massive and enthusiastic crowds.

However, there was an exception to that Monday afternoon outside the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, when Jackson was drowned out with boos from about 200 plant workers as he advocated closing the $450-million facility over safety reasons. The plant just outside Sacramento is the target of a voter referendum to shut it permanently, and environmentalist critics of the plant had invited Jackson to speak but were outnumbered by the workers.

Jackson, who advocates closing all nuclear facilities, said that “nuclear power, whether at Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl or here, is a dangerous option.”

The plant, which employs 2,500 workers, has been on line since 1975 and supplies energy to 230,000 homes and businesses in the Sacramento area. Jackson quickly finished his remarks and departed for the airport.

In a recent interview aboard his plane as he campaigned in California, Jackson ticked off what he considers his victories thus far. For example, he noted with satisfaction that one of the most dominant issues of the presidential debate, drugs, was one that he first emphasized.

Consequently, Vice President George Bush, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Dukakis, who credits Jackson with first raising the issue, have followed his lead.

Bush last week trekked into a tough Los Angeles neighborhood to visit a crack house. Dukakis, trying to show he is tough on drugs and urban crime, went walking through the streets of San Francisco--but found himself in one of the city’s most crime-free neighborhoods.

“At least they are trying,” Jackson said, laughing. “The fact that Bush and Dukakis are now talking about drugs and the press is talking about drugs, that’s winning every day.

“Early on, the focus was on Third World nations taking jobs from us. I put the focus on American multinational corporations taking jobs to Third World nations and not paying their taxes. We are changing the national agenda.”

On questions of deficit reduction and military spending, Jackson noted that Rep. Ronald V. Dellums of Berkeley went before a Democratic Party platform hearing on defense spending as a Jackson representative and last-minute addition after a complaint from Jackson to Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. that the hearing was being dominated by forces favorable to military spending. Dellums, advancing Jackson’s message of a freeze on military expenditures, received the most enthusiastic response, he said.

“That’s winning, because clearly the Democratic constituency is offering a mandate for freezing the military budget without freezing our defense capabilities,” Jackson said. “The fact that we were able to call Paul Kirk directly and get an instant response to have access to the platform and to have people to argue that case, is winning, whereas historically we couldn’t have gotten the call through. We couldn’t have gotten a call back. We couldn’t have gotten someone of our choice to testify.”

Jackson claims influence on Republican policy, as well.

“President Reagan is going to take (Assistant Secretary of State Chester A.) Crocker to the Gorbachev meeting because they are going to discuss Angola and Namibia, African policy. Well, that’s our agenda. That’s winning.”

Although it is difficult to measure Jackson’s impact on national issues, Times political analyst William Schneider of the American Enterprise Institute said that “there is some justification for what he’s saying.”

Although Jackson has a tendency to exaggerate his influence, Schneider said, “to a considerable extent he has raised issues that others have now taken up. Drugs, South Africa and multinational corporations are all drawing a response.”

Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, “and to a limited extent” Dukakis and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. picked up on the specific issue of multinational corporations, he said. “And while I don’t think Ronald Reagan is taking Crocker to the summit to placate Jesse Jackson, I think Jackson has been influential on keeping the issue on the table,” Schneider said.

But beyond agenda items, Jackson cites increased Democratic Party participation and voter registration like that in 1984, which helped return control of the Senate to Democrats.

“When you see workers and farmers, black, white and brown, coming together in support of me, they’re crossing lines of race, sex and religion--that represents a growth in the character of our country. No one has pulled together a multicultural coalition except this campaign. Compare my penetration of the white vote, with Dukakis’ penetration of the other-than-white vote.

Across the country, there are numerous instances in which Jackson’s impact has been strongly felt on local and state politics.

Though Jackson lost New York state, he won New York City, casting a cloud over the political future of Mayor Edward I. Koch, who campaigned virulently against him. In Tennessee, Gore’s home state, Jackson won Shelby County, where Memphis’ black majority now envisions the possibility of electing a black mayor.

“Where we have been No. 1 or No. 2, we change the political coalitions in those states,” Jackson said. “Slate making across these states will change. As we once entered all-white primaries and all-white-male primaries, you’ll see more women, more Hispanics, more blacks, more Asians now on city, county and state slates. They have been part of the process. They know now how to organize precincts. They know how to organize a city or county or state race. They will find the lockout of women, Hispanics, blacks, Asians, gays, lesbians unacceptable.”

Jackson’s determination to see his support translate into substantial impact on the party could prove to be a thorny obstacle for those Democrats who would deny him during the Democratic National Convention in July in Atlanta.

“By Atlanta,” Jackson said, “I will have 7 million-plus votes. We expect the platform to reflect the mandate that the people have given us for change in July.”

Jackson wants the party platform to reflect a plan for an all-out war on drugs, a freeze on defense spending for deficit reduction, more cost sharing in defense expenditures by NATO countries and Japan, vastly increased funding for public education and proposals for expanded day care and long-term health care. On foreign policy, he calls for economic investment in Third World countries to halt the flow of American jobs overseas and a declaration of South Africa as a terrorist state.

In offering his tax proposals, Jackson said: “I am convinced that Democrats who see this budget will rally to it because it represents relief for the homeless, relief for those who want Head Start and day care, relief for those who want public education, relief for those who want investment in people and investment in America.”

“Reagan has cut investment in health care, housing, legal services, day care and scholarships by more than $100 billion,” he said. “Mr. Dukakis rails against that as being wrong but offers only $775 million to offset Reaganomics. That is radically conservative, away from the dreams and aspirations of most Democrats.”