Democratic Panel Hones Platform Draft

Democratic platform drafters Friday cleared the way for the full platform committee to act on a streamlined 1988 party manifesto that reflects a good measure of harmony but leaves unresolved several significant differences between the prospective standard bearer, Michael S. Dukakis, and his only remaining challenger, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The key disagreements involve proposals by Jackson for a tax increase and a defense spending freeze, both of which Dukakis opposes. Unless the 186-member platform panel meeting here today resolves them, they will likely be disputed on the floor of the Atlanta convention next month.

Neither issue was even discussed here at the session of the 16-member drafting committee. Instead the panel focused on making technical amendments to the draft platform which was based on their discussions on Mackinac Island, Mich., two weeks ago.

The draft attempted to meet the goal set by party leaders of producing a platform that would be shorter and less specific than the 1984 document, which was nearly 50,000 words long and replete with promises.

3,000 Words Long

Authored by Theodore C. Sorensen, former speech writer to President John F. Kennedy, the draft was only 3,000 words long, and although it pledged to work toward fulfillment of a number of traditional liberal Democratic principles, it endorsed only one piece of specific legislation--the equal rights amendment, which the Democrats have regularly supported in the past.

The draft made no mention of taxes. At one point it referred to “executive-legislative cooperation” as a tool to “halt the debacle of deficit and debt,” which it blamed on the Reagan Administration, but this language was ultimately scrapped at the suggestion of former Maryland Rep. Michael Barnes, Dukakis’ chief representative to the drafting committee, who said “it is not altogether clear what it means.”

Barnes promised it would be replaced by more “substantive language,” although Jack Corrigan, director of operations for the Dukakis campaign, made clear that Dukakis would not accept a call for a tax increase in the platform.

Dukakis has said he would consider raising taxes only as a last resort. Meanwhile, he claims, tightening enforcement of the tax code can bring in up to $100 billion a year to cut the deficit.

Jackson supporters on the drafting committee say their candidate’s idea for a tax boost, targeted at upper-income taxpayers, is necessary to meet the nation’s increasing domestic needs without adding to the already swollen budget deficit.

Defense Fund Freeze

Jackson also wants a five-year freeze in defense spending, which Dukakis supporters say would actually amount to about a $20-billion cut, because the freeze proposal makes no allowance for inflation. Dukakis has indicated he expects defense spending to keep pace with inflation.

On the defense spending issue, the draft platform says only that “our national strength will be enhanced by more stable defense budgets.”

Among other issues on which Dukakis and Jackson disagree and which were left to be dealt with by the full platform committee or the convention are the idea of a Palestinian state, which Jackson supports and Dukakis opposes, and Jackson’s proposal that the United States vow never to be the nation to make first use of nuclear weapons.