Democrats Accuse Bush of Neglecting Economy : Politics: In prime-time debate, they say the President fails to deal with the problems of national decline.

Six Democratic presidential candidates, in the first nationally televised debate of the 1992 campaign, accused President Bush Sunday night of neglecting the troubled economy and failing to grapple with the broad problems of national decline.

But they offered differing prescriptions for action and took frequent shots at each other during the 90 minutes of freewheeling give-and-take.

Sharing the spotlight were former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas and Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. Tom Brokaw moderated the exchange, held in NBC’s studios in Washington.

While adhering to an overall theme of condemning Bush for what they said was his mismanagement of domestic policy--particularly the economy--each of the Democratic candidates attempted to explain why his convictions and credentials made him best suited to replace the incumbent. In the process, they tended to play out the roles they have scripted for themselves in prior appearances on the hustings.

Thus, Harkin took the part of the spokesman for economic populism and traditional Democratic liberalism. He described Bush as “a President completely out of touch with the American people” who “doesn’t understand ordinary working people.” His candidacy, Harkin said in his opening statement, would “take a tough message to the American people that we’ve got to put this country back to work . . . and we’ve got to quit giving tax breaks to the rich.”

Clinton, in contrast, depicted himself as the spokesman for revision--loyal to the party’s fundamental creed but offering new approaches to the economy, education and other domestic problems. Stressing the need for his party to adjust to the present and the future, he said: “We all know that in ‘The Christmas Carol’ George Bush is Scrooge. But we Democrats can’t afford to be the Ghost of Christmas Past. We have to change.”

Kerrey presented himself as the spokesman for a new generation of Americans hungry for fundamental change. “I want to go into a different kind of a future, to build a great economic base in the United States.” He took every opportunity to refer to his combat experience in Vietnam, which cost him his right leg and won for him the Medal of Honor. And he repeatedly plugged the national health insurance plan that is the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.

Wilder, the only black in the competition, cited his achievement as the grandson of slaves who in 1989 became the nation’s first elected black governor. He also emphasized his record of fiscal discipline in Virginia. “I’ve heard people say that you couldn’t balance budgets without raising taxes,” he said. “I balanced my budget without raising taxes. And I said if I can do this in Virginia . . . then we can do that for the nation.”

Tsongas sought to live up to his self-billing as “an economic Paul Revere” and a pro-business liberal critical of traditional Democratic economic nostrums. “George Bush not only does not have the solutions” to the nation’s economic problems, he said, “but he will not acknowledge the problems.” But Tsongas added: “When I listen to the old-style Democratic economic message, there is not hope there. What we have to be is a party of economic growth.”

Brown used the debate to further define his candidacy as a crusade against the political Establishment, which he contends is totally corrupted by the practices and rules of campaign financing.

“Politicians--like in debates like this--they talk about crime, they talk about how they’re going to put the economy back, how they are going to fight dope. But nothing happens,” he said. “It’s the money--the money that’s going into this thing is coming from a few people . . . (who) are buying these campaigns, even candidates that are here tonight, and the American people have lost control.”

Brown’s rhetoric provoked Kerrey, who in one of the sharpest direct exchanges of the evening told him: “I resent all this. Are you saying I’m bought and paid for?”

Brown did not answer him directly, but he did get into a confrontation with Brokaw, who at the start of the program asked the candidates not to attempt to solicit funds. But Brown defied Brokaw and shouted out the toll-free number of his headquarters so that supporters could contribute.

The debate occurred as the slow-starting Democratic presidential contest appeared to be taking definition and shape. Earlier in the day, Clinton easily won a straw poll at the Florida Democratic convention, a showing that buttressed his claim to a political base in his native South.

Missing from the debate panel was New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who has been contemplating a presidential candidacy and faces a filing deadline later this week if he wants to compete in the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary. If Cuomo becomes a candidate, he would automatically be regarded as the front-runner, in large part because he is far better known nationally than any of the current six contenders.

Meanwhile, the six announced contenders sought to take advantage of Cuomo’s absence and the rare access to network prime time to begin the task of catching up with the New York governor’s greater renown.

A key difference that surfaced among the six involved the proposal for a middle-class income tax cut now being advanced by some congressional Democrats as a cure for the recession.

Tsongas previously has opposed the idea as “bad economics,” and he reiterated that view in the debate. “If the question is what sells in the polls, the middle-class tax cut is the answer,” he said. “If the question is how do you get this economy going, the answer is you have to restore the manufacturing base of the country.”

Harkin used a prop to ridicule the tax cut proposal. He held up a dollar bill, which he said was all that a typical family would get from the most widely supported cut, and said: “A dollar a day for a family is a joke.”

But Clinton said he supported the tax cut. While citing the need for long-term economic remedies--such as increasing investment--he said: “We also have a terrible short-term recession in places like New Hampshire. You can’t have consumer confidence restored until there’s consumer cash. I want to restore fairness and use this boost to consumers to get the economy going again in the short run.”

Kerrey also backed the tax cut, “in order to restore equity” to the tax code. But he added that his proposal for health care reform, which would provide universal coverage along with cost controls, was just as essential for economic recovery as the tax cut.

Asked about affirmative action programs, Harkin referred to them as “a sidebar.” He said: “The main thing is to provide for an expanding economy, more jobs for people. You can have all the civil rights programs which I’ve supported . . . but if you don’t have jobs, it doesn’t mean a thing.”

But Kerrey stressed the need for specific affirmative action programs. “I’m a 48-year-old male, white, and if I’m in a position to hire people, unless I act affirmatively I’m going to hire people 48 years old, white and male,” he said. “I’ve got to act affirmatively to bring women, to bring people of color, to bring other folks into this job market.”

And Wilder denied that affirmative action programs necessarily mean hiring quotas. “I’ve never known a quota,” he said. “I do know that the playing field has not been level, and to the extent that people were barred solely because of their race or because of their sex, the courts have said you can’t continue to do that.”

Staff writers Paul Houston and Steven Braun contributed to this story.