Jackson Aides Seek Defense Spending Cut : Dukakis Forces Resist Idea as Democrats Close Platform Talks

The Democratic Party platform committee concluded a three-day meeting here Sunday in a harmonious mood but facing a significant new disagreement over defense spending and with much of its work yet undone.

At the center of controversy was a proposal by forces backing the Rev. Jesse Jackson to cut or at least freeze Pentagon expenditures. Forces backing the party’s prospective nominee, Michael S. Dukakis, argued against the idea, contending that their candidate wants flexibility to deal with defense spending if he is elected.

The Jackson proposal--spelled out in the model budget prepared by the Jackson campaign as a five-year freeze, because it does not allow for inflation--would amount to a reduction of an estimated $20 billion a year in defense spending.

Two Chief Controversies

This disagreement and the dispute that developed during Saturday’s drafting session over the Dukakis campaign’s opposition to a tax hike proposed by the Jackson forces were described by leaders both for Dukakis and his sole remaining adversary as the two chief controversies facing the platform committee and the ones most likely to be submitted to the floor of the national convention in Atlanta next month for final resolution.

One potential source of disagreement was removed when the Dukakis representatives agreed to accept the Jackson camp’s proposal officially labeling South Africa a terrorist state. That, however, had never been a hotly contested issue.

But the issue of defense spending, like the tax hike proposal, is freighted with political significance for Dukakis’ campaign. Just as the Democrats have been vulnerable in the past to accusations that they were too prone to raise taxes, they have also been sensitive to charges that they are weak on defense.

That concern was voiced most directly here by Roy Neel, representing the presidential campaign of Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., who argued that going along with the Jackson proposal would hurt the Democrats among swing voters, traditional Democrats who voted Republican in 1980 and 1984.

Asserting that the next President should have “maximum flexibility” in dealing with defense spending, Neel said the committee should “send a message to the American people that the Democrats are responsible about this important issue.”

On the other side, Leslie McLemore, a Jackson supporter from Jackson, Miss., contended that the “the defense budget is not a sacred cow,” adding: “We owe it to the American people to take a serious look at freezing and cutting the defense budget.”

Nuclear Weapons

Jackson forces also called for language in the platform committing the United States not to be first to use nuclear weapons. The Dukakis supporters opposed this on grounds that it was poor policy and poor tactics for this country to deny itself even the possibility of using nuclear weaponry.

But Eleanor Holmes Norton, the former Carter Administration official who is Jackson’s chief representative on the drafting committee, said this dispute and other differences between the two campaigns, apart from the tax and defense issues, amounted merely to “matters of detail and nuance.”

She praised the Dukakis forces for being “open and cooperative” in their dealings with the Jackson loyalists and pointed with pride to the influence that she said the Jackson campaign is having on the proceedings.

Probably the most significant victory for the Jackson forces was the decision by the Dukakis campaign to accept the idea, advanced by Jackson, officially labeling South Africa a terrorist state. Dukakis’ backers said they viewed this issue as a matter of semantics since they contended that the sanctions that could be imposed against South Africa under the law governing so-called terrorist states had already been put into effect by other legislation.

Willing to Soft-Pedal

For their part, the Jackson forces seemed to be willing to soft-pedal another area of potential controversy, the Middle East. In asserting the campaign’s position on that issue, Janice Thurmond, an Athens, Ga., lawyer, called for a platform plank recognizing for Palestinians “the right to self-determination,” language that seemed less likely to offend supporters of Israel than an outright call for a Palestinian state, which Jackson has advocated during the campaign.

When Sunday’s session finished, Norton, speaking on behalf of the Jackson forces, emphasized the friendliness of the relationships between the two campaigns. Chiding journalists who she asserted came here hoping “for blood” on the floor, Norton said: “You will find the floor is clean.”

In a similar vein, former Maryland Rep. Michael Barnes, the chief Dukakis campaign agent on hand, said the meetings had established that “we are all Democrats committed to our party winning in November.”

Determined Chairman

But partly because of the determination of its chairman, Philadelphia Rep. William H. Gray III, to achieve this sort of harmony and consensus, the 16-member committee moved at a leisurely pace, compared to past drafting committees. Gray gave supporters of both Dukakis and Jackson ample opportunity to speak their minds before committee staff members took on the task of summarizing on paper their points of agreement.

Not a vote was taken during the three days and when they left this island resort, all the committee members had to show for their efforts were the staff summaries of the discussions which Gray referred to as “preliminary working papers,” rather than a draft.

After reviewing these summaries, the committee will meet again at least once in order to prepare the draft it must submit to the full platform committee meeting in Denver on June 25.

Tax Hike for Rich

Jackson, meanwhile, on Sunday strongly defended his campaign’s effort to win the party’s commitment to a tax increase on the wealthy, saying it was important that they “share the burden” to reduce the federal budget deficit.

“Reagan gave them a party,” said Jackson, who was interviewed from Chicago on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Now they must pay for the party.”

Although a pledge to raise taxes is regarded by Dukakis’ advisers as politically suicidal, Jackson insisted: “We ought to be candid with the American people. There is no miraculous way of getting out of the budget deficit.”

Besides, Jackson added, taxes would be raised only on the wealthiest 5% of Americans, who are “basically Republicans in the first place.”

‘A Last Resort’

Dukakis, however, continued to resist the proposal of a tax increase. At an airport press conference in Salt Lake City on Sunday prior to addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Dukakis said: “I think taxes always are a last resort.” While “no responsible candidate can rule out new taxes at any time” over the next eight years, Dukakis said, he reiterated that he would push for increased efforts to collect taxes that the federal government is not currently collecting before he would agree to any call for new taxes.

But, he said, “I doubt very much” that the tax issue will end up being fought on the floor of the Democratic convention.

Staff writers David Lauter in Salt Lake City and Douglas Jehl in Chicago contributed to this story.