Gore, Kemp Clash on Tax Cuts and Economic Growth

Vice presidential candidates Al Gore and Jack Kemp clashed repeatedly Wednesday night over their running mates’ prescriptions for economic growth, differing on the role of tax cuts and the scope of the economy’s performance during the four years of the Clinton administration.

Gore and Kemp differed, too, in their nationally televised debate over the contentious social issues of abortion and affirmative action--two topics on which Kemp has sought to put some distance between himself and conventional Republican policy.

Gore, the Democrat seeking a second term as Bill Clinton’s vice president, and Kemp, the Republican running with presidential candidate Bob Dole, cloaked their considerable policy differences in civility on the red-carpeted stage of the Mahaffey Theater in the Bayfront Center overlooking Tampa Bay.

Kemp, something of a maverick, both within the Republican Party’s congressional ranks and then as George Bush’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, accused the Clinton administration of following a socialist policy directed at the residents of the nation’s inner cities.

“Their solution to the inner city is more--excuse the expression, but it’s true--socialism. It is not for the people. It is for the government to tell them where to live, where to go to school,” said Kemp, who grew more red-faced and voluble as Gore’s studied tenor, a trademark of his public delivery, became even more measured as the evening wore on.

Even as the two men made clear their policy differences, Kemp insisted he and his running mate would avoid personal attacks on Clinton’s character. “It is beneath Bob Dole to go after anyone personally.”

Indeed, although Dole criticized Clinton sharply on the campaign trail Tuesday, on Sunday during his debate in Hartford, Conn., he shied away from developing the character issue, fearing, he said later, that he would turn off voters if he seemed too aggressive. Kemp hewed to that line, as well.

Where Kemp, GOP Differ

On abortion, Kemp distanced himself from the Republican Party platform, which calls for approval of a constitutional amendment that would make nearly all abortions a crime.

“We recognize there’s no consensus in America. A constitutional amendment would not pass. We must use persuasion, not intimidation,” Kemp said.

He noted that he and his wife have three adopted grandchildren. “We thank God every night of our life that a young woman was given the opportunity to choose life,” he said.

Kemp’s words were almost exactly what Steve Forbes argued during the Republican primaries earlier this year. At the time, Forbes was hotly criticized by antiabortion advocates within the party.

Gore, responding to Kemp, reminded the audience that the Republican Party’s stand would outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

“We will never allow a woman’s right to choose be taken away,” he said.

Gore Chides GOP Ticket

On affirmative action, Gore chided Kemp and Dole for supporting the California ballot measure that would bar “preferential treatment” based on race, sex or ethnicity in public employment, education and contracts.

“Diversity is a great strength in America,” the vice president said, pledging that the administration would preserve affirmative action in federal hiring and in the awarding of contracts.

Gore praised Kemp for having been a “lonely voice” within the Republican Party speaking up for racial progress, but noted “with some sadness” that Kemp had changed course and endorsed the California measure the day after he joined Dole’s ticket.

Before joining the ticket--Kemp had privately said he would not support the initiative, now Proposition 209--Gore mistakenly said that Kemp had “campaigned against it, spoke against it, wrote letters against it,” apparently confusing Kemp’s record on the affirmative action initiative with his record on another controversial ballot measure, Proposition 187 on illegal immigration.

Although Kemp now supports Proposition 209, he has often seemed uncomfortable with it and has opposed making the initiative a focus for the GOP campaign.

In keeping with Kemp’s somewhat ambiguous position on the issue, he carefully avoided saying anything favorable about the initiative, saying that “my life has been dedicated to equality of opportunity.”

Economics Takes Center Stage

But it was economics that dominated the 90-minute debate. Each time the moderator, Jim Lehrer, host of Public Broadcasting System’s NewsHour, sought to navigate the series of mini-speeches into new territory, Gore, and to an even greater degree Kemp, managed to steer the topic back to economics.

That, said Kemp’s running mate, was exactly what he was supposed to do.

“He stuck with the economic package--that was our strategy. Every time you get a question, talk about the economic package, what it means to the American people, what it means to working people,” Dole told reporters outside the white brick Colonial house in Naperville, Ill., where he had watched the debate.

Indeed, even a question on civility in American discourse--pegged to the baseball incident in which Roberto Alomar of the Baltimore Orioles spat in the face of an umpire--quickly turned into yet one more pronouncement on the need to increase personal incomes.

“Civility, responsibility, racial reconciliation, healing the wounds of our country has to be one of the greatest and most singularly important goals for this country here on the edge of the 21st century,” Kemp said.

He then launched into his complaint that there is little room for civility in America if the country fails to create more wealth and spread it to all--a somewhat odd juxtaposition given that Alomar has a salary this year of $4 million.

“Civility cannot return to our country unless every person feels that they have an equal shot at the American dream,” he said.

Gore denounced the spitting incident, saying Alomar “should have been severely disciplined, suspended perhaps, immediately.” Alomar was given a five-game suspension, but playoff and championship games were exempted.

It was not a performance likely to have broken viewership records. The number of people watching the first presidential debate last Sunday was sharply reduced from four years ago, and Wednesday night’s debate was competing on television with the opening game of the National League’s championship series between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals.

But Gore and Kemp sought to make a contest of it nevertheless, presenting their cases with an air, at times, of earnest, high school debating wonks well-versed in the verbiage of the Beltway seeking gamely, but largely unsuccessfully, for the perfect sound bite.

A Trickling Down Remark

Perhaps the closest they came was when Kemp, praising the benefits of tax cuts, said that Gore “will call that trickle down. I call it Niagara Falls.”

“The problem with this version of ‘Niagara Falls’ is that Sen. Dole and Mr. Kemp would put the American economy in a barrel and send it over the falls,” Gore shot back.

Time and again, Gore talked of the proposed tax cut that represents the heart of Dole’s economic program. Eight times he called it a “$550 billion risky scheme.”

And with even greater repetition, Kemp hawked the Dole plan to cut taxes--focusing on his own longtime favorite--a cut in capital gains taxes. He addressed that topic 13 times during the hour and a half session. Over and over, he delved even further into the arcane turf of the U.S. tax code--83 years old, 7 1/2 million pages in length, he reminded his viewers.

But the vice presidential candidates also managed to get to more philosophical matters--each seeking to draw differences with his opponent’s overall policies--Kemp attacking the administration, Gore defending policies developed over the last four years.

“We’re treading water,” Kemp said. “We have families that are hurting, we have people who are unemployed, we have people with no property, we have an administration that is demolishing public housing in our inner cities and not providing anything else but more public housing.”

“President Bill Clinton promised to create 8 million jobs. He’s created 10 1/2 million new jobs,” Gore responded. “He promised to cut the budget deficit in half. He has cut it by 60%.”

The best economy in 30 years, Gore said--quoting a statement that Dole made earlier this year, and no doubt regrets now.

Clinton’s record, his vice president said, “is a record of promises and promises kept.”

Gore Seen as Clear Winner

Three “instant polls” by television networks each indicated that most voters saw Gore as the victor in the encounter. An ABC survey had 50% calling Gore the winner and 27% Kemp, with 21% of those surveyed calling it a draw. A CBS survey had Gore 48%, Kemp 31%, with 13% favoring a draw. And a CNN poll put it at 57% Gore, 28% Kemp.

Both Kemp and Gore have been campaigning extensively in urban areas--something that neither Dole nor Clinton has done--and the opening third of their encounter included a lengthy exchange on urban policy.

Kemp assailed the administration’s policies, saying the welfare state created a “split not so much between black and white” but between urban have-nots and the rest of America.

“We really have two economies,” said Kemp. While prosperous Americans enjoy a range of choices in managing their families’ finances and affairs, said Kemp, “there is a socialist economy” in the nation’s inner cities.

Defending the administration’s urban initiatives, Gore cited the establishment of 105 empowerment zones and enterprise communities since Clinton took office, adding that “we have moved 1.9 million people off welfare rolls into good jobs in the last four years.”

Gore went on to needle Kemp, who faced opposition to many of his proposed urban initiatives during the Bush years.

“Kemp had a good idea when he advocated that years ago,” Gore said of Kemp’s advocacy of home ownership programs for the poor. “He talked about it. We did it.”

Clinton Foreign Policy Assailed

Kemp also attacked the administration for a foreign policy that he said weakened the U.S. and emboldened its enemies. “It’s unbelievable that ambiguity can be called a foreign policy,” he said.

Gore responded that the U.S. has successfully exerted itself in Bosnia to halt bloodshed, in Haiti to restore democracy and in Iraq, where he argued that every time Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has violated the terms of United Nations resolutions, he “has felt the sting of a swift, certain response from the United States.”

Kemp strayed from Dole’s position on the issue of U.S. intervention in Haiti two years ago to restore elected Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after a coup.

“Clearly, it was maybe the right thing to do,” Kemp said.

Dole opposed the use of U.S. troops in Haiti and has continued to criticize the action.

Kemp also blamed the White House for the upheaval in the Mexican economy two years ago, arguing that the downturn began after the Mexican government, under pressure from the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund, devalued the peso.

As the Mexican economy plummeted, Kemp said, “it cost us $20 billion to $50 billion to bail them out.”

Gore responded that in the end, the U.S. made a $500-million profit on the Mexican deal and that Kemp was improperly blaming the United States for decisions Mexico made. The U.S. government “shouldn’t be blamed for the management of Mexico’s monetary policy,” he said.

Gerstenzang reported from Washington and Lacey from St. Petersburg. Times staff writers Melissa Healy, David Savage and Elizabeth Shogren in Washington, Edwin Chen in St. Petersburg, Maria L. La Ganga in Naperville, Ill., and researcher Robin Cochran contributed to this story.

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The Exchange

“We have seen progress during the last four years” but Republican plans “would be a serious risk.”

--AL GORE

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“This economy is overtaxed, overregulated . . . Bob Dole and I believe we can do a lot better.”

--JACK KEMP