Dole Touts Tax Plan and Alters Campaign Staff

Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole surrounded himself with his top economic advisors Tuesday to boost his economic package of tax cuts, defense spending and IRS reform as “good for California and good for America.”

Vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, who has been vacationing in Laguna Beach, joined Dole for a round-table discussion along with Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was named Tuesday as the campaign’s national chairman.

Among the advisors present were Michael Boskin, former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Bush administration, John Cogan and Martin Anderson of the Hoover Institute, and Stanford economist John B. Taylor, a chief architect of Dole’s plan.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz and economist Milton Friedman participated via telephone hookup.

Dole touted their credentials to underscore the credibility of his plan for a 15% tax cut, a 50% reduction in the capital gains tax and a scaling back of the tax collection role of the IRS. “There isn’t an economist at this table who would stick their neck out for political reasons,” he said.

Dole repeatedly defended his proposed 15% tax cut, saying it would not balloon the federal deficit despite the $548 billion it would drain from government coffers in the next six years. “It’s not just cutting taxes,” Dole said. He vowed also to cut government spending to help make up for the shortfall and to push for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.

“When you hear Clinton say, ‘We can’t do it. It’s going to blow a hole in his deficit, in his budget.’ It has already blown a hole in his lead,” Dole said. “I think that’s the problem.”

The Dole campaign selected a beverage distribution warehouse to huddle privately with economists over his tax-slashing strategy and then emerged to field friendly questions from an assembled group of business leaders.

While the Democrats congregate at their national convention in Chicago to renominate President Clinton, Dole has been on a working vacation at the Biltmore Hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean and nearby Channel Islands.

Dole made a change in his campaign leadership Tuesday, elevating Rumsfeld from senior policy advisor to the position of national chairman. New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill remains general chairman.

Asked about the leadership change, Merrill said: “It’s one of the things that happens on a campaign. I don’t take it very seriously. It doesn’t diminish my interest or my role or my nights on the road.

“Donald Rumsfeld will lead the economic plan, and he will continue to do that. My role is to deliver the 32 Republican governors and I will continue to do that.”

Dole campaign manager Scott Reed made the announcement about Rumsfeld, former secretary of defense and White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford. He also announced that former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and former Secretary of Labor Ann McLaughlin would become national vice chairs of the campaign.