Dukakis Assails GOP on Deficit, Gets Union Nod

Calling for a “new economic patriotism,” Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis received the endorsement of the AFL-CIO on Wednesday and charged in a speech to labor leaders that Republicans had made the nation dependent on “foreign bankers” while allowing average family income to stagnate.

Running mate “Lloyd Bentsen and I,” Dukakis said, “believe in investing in America, and the Republicans don’t; we want to forge a new era of greatness for America, and they don’t.”

During the Democratic primaries, Dukakis kept some distance from labor leaders, seeking to avoid the “special interest” label Republicans hung on Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale four years ago.

And in his speech Wednesday, Dukakis maintained some of that distance, barely mentioning the word “union” and avoiding many of the issues, such as labor law reform, that once were standard for Democrats at such gatherings.

But the tone of economic nationalism, which Dukakis has been introducing into his speeches recently, is calculated to appeal to the labor federation and to the audiences in key Midwestern states that he will see in a campaign swing that took him later in the day to Grand Rapids, Mich., and will have him today in Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pa.

The economic nationalism theme also has provided Dukakis with several new opportunities to attack the Republican presidential nominee, Vice President George Bush, who has linked his fortunes to a strong defense of the Reagan economic record.

Interest Rates Criticized

Increased national debt in the Reagan years has left the nation dependent on “foreign bankers” whose money is needed to finance the deficit, Dukakis charged, maintaining that the need to attract foreign capital was keeping U.S. interest rates high. The high interest rates, he said, are a “Republican tax on middle America.”

Dukakis said Bush had been assigned by Reagan in 1983 to manage “our trade problem with Japan.” At the time, he said, the U.S. trade deficit with Japan was $22 billion and Bush “came home declaring U.S.-Japanese trade relations were ‘superb.’ ”

“We can do better,” Dukakis declared.

The Democratic candidate has sought to link his standard economic proposals to a theme of national strength in an attempt to blunt an anticipated Republican assault employing more traditional patriotic themes.

Clash Over Pledge

Already those issues have begun to dominate the rhetoric of the campaign debate. Bush has charged that Dukakis sees America as “just another nation on the U.N. roll call” and that he would destroy the country’s strength. And this week, the two clashed over the Pledge of Allegiance, with Bush seeking to plant doubts about Dukakis’ patriotism and Dukakis questioning Bush’s commitment to “the Constitution and the rule of law.” Dukakis’ jabs at Bush drew loud applause from the labor leaders, who earlier in the day gave him a nearly unanimous endorsement vote.

“We enter this campaign with enthusiasm,” AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said after Dukakis’ speech. “We know the stakes and we’re ready for the job.”

The loudest applause, however--along with whistles and derisive laughter--came with a thinly veiled jab at Bush’s running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana.

After praising the role his own running mate, Sen. Bentsen of Texas, played in enacting new trade legislation, Dukakis asked: “Isn’t it great to have a running mate who’s been a leader in the United States Senate?”

Valuable Assistance Expected

Democratic campaign officials look forward eagerly to labor’s help during the general election, anticipating that, as they did four years ago, unions will provide millions of dollars’ worth of volunteer assistance for field organizations, get-out-the-vote drives and other grass-roots efforts.

The presidents of the labor federation’s 91 affiliated unions voted 95.7% of their 14.1 million members in favor of a Dukakis endorsement, with only three unions abstaining.

However, among those unions abstaining was the largest, the 1.6-million-member Teamsters, which in 1980 and 1984 endorsed Ronald Reagan after making no presidential endorsement in 1976.

Newly installed Teamster President William J. McCarthy of Boston said he is withholding an endorsement until a mail poll of his members is completed Sept. 16.

The 30,000-member Air Line Pilots Assn. and the 40,000-member Marine Engineers union also voted to abstain from making a presidential endorsement.