Bush’s Deficit Plan Called ‘Son of Voodoo Economics’

Democrat Michael S. Dukakis today ridiculed George Bush’s plan for a flexible freeze to cut the federal deficit as “the son of voodoo economics.”

Dukakis, addressing a group of newspaper editors, said, “There is no Republican plan” to balance the budget. “The vice president is talking about a flexible freeze. That’s like a melting ice cube. . . . That’s the son of voodoo economics”--a phrase Bush used in 1980 to lampoon Ronald Reagan’s theory of economics when they opposed one another for the presidential nomination.

Dukakis said he would eliminate the deficit within five years by holding the line on defense spending, cutting some domestic spending and collecting unpaid taxes.

Credentials Questioned

The Democratic candidate, continuing his two-day annual visit of northern Massachusetts today, also questioned Bush’s credentials to be President.

“The Republican nominee has never been a chief executive, never appointed a cabinet, never had to balance a budget,” Dukakis said.

Dukakis, touching on the controversy over Bush’s selection of Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle as the GOP vice presidential nominee, said he believed media scrutiny of candidates’ military and academic records was relevant. He again indirectly questioned Bush’s judgment in selecting Quayle.

“The question of how Mr. Bush and I picked a vice presidential candidate is an issue,” said Dukakis, who tapped Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen to share the Democratic ticket.

The analysis of Quayle’s record, Dukakis said, has made Bentsen’s “record of leadership stand out even more.”

Dukakis answered allegations by a Republican congressman that he obtained a deferment until he finished Swarthmore College during the Korean War.

Dukakis said he asked to be drafted immediately after graduation, and he spent 16 months in the demilitarized zone in Korea after the fighting had stopped.

“I’m very proud of that service and very proud of the opportunity it gave me to serve my country,” Dukakis said.

Dukakis railed against Bush when he was asked about GOP criticism of Dukakis’ 1977 veto of state legislation that penalized teachers who refused to lead their students in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Called Unconstitutional

Dukakis vetoed the measure after the state’s highest court, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, said the legislation was unconstitutional.

“If the vice president of the United States is saying that if he was President and the United States Supreme Court said the law was unconstitutional and the attorney general said it was unconstitutional and he’d have signed it anyway, well, that raises very serious questions about what it means to take the oath of office,” Dukakis said.