Politics

GOP Hopefuls Clash On Taxes

January 10, 2000 / 8:18 AM EST / CBS/AP

Gov. George Bush described himself Monday night as "a tax cutting person" who delivered in Texas and would as president, while Sen. John McCain said his tax plan is "far better" for lower and middle income Americans.

Taxes were the keynote argument in the third Republican campaign debate in five days, stirred by Steve Forbes' television ad attacking Bush on grounds he reneged on a pledge against any tax increases in Texas.

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McCain chimed in, saying that the federal tax cut Bush is proposing now would spend all the projected budget surplus and $20 billion more, with two-thirds of the cut going to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans.

He said he wants surpluses used to protect Social Security. "For us to put all of the surplus into tax cuts, I think, is not a conservative effort," he said.

Disputing the Forbes ad, Bush said he has twice led his state to the biggest tax cuts in its history. His packages included offsetting increases in sales taxes, but Bush said the result was lower levies on Texans.

"I am a tax cutting person," Bush said. "I know how to get it done."

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Forbes wasn't budging, saying he stood by his ad. "A pledge should not be used as a trinket to win an election," he said. "The ad is accurate. ... You did break that pledge." He said things like that make Americans cynical about politics.

Bush shot back, "One thing that makes the American people cynical is negative advertisements on TV." Later, Bush said he would not do to other candidates what Forbes did to Bob Dole, the GOP nominee in 1996, who emerged from the primary campaign weakened by Forbes attack ads.

Later, Forbes confronted Bush again, this time on abortion.

"Let's take a dream ride for a moment," he said, "let's pretend that you get the nomination."

"I accept that premise," Bush put in.

Forbes then challenged Bush to promise that as nominee, he would preserve the anti-abortion plank in the Republican campaign platform, and would promise to pick a running mate and nominate judges committed to end abortion.

Bush said he would choose a vice president who agrees with his policies and is qualified to be president, would name federal judges who strictly interpret the law, and would "work to keep the Republican Party pro-life."
Five of the six candidates hedged on an administration plan for aid to Africa to fight the AIDS epidemic. Sen. Orrin Hatch said he agreed with the $150 million in assistance. Bush, McCain and Forbes said they favored helping, but only with guarantees that the money would actually go to the people in need, not to corrupt governments.

McCain was asked whether he would have negotiated with hijackers as the Indian government did to gain the release of airliner hostages.

"No, never," McCain said. "Next question."

The Arizona senator went on to say that as president, he would have mounted a commando operation. The retired Naval officer and Vietnam POW said that he would have had the tires shot out and the airliner involved "would not have taken off again."

Bush said he agreed with McCain.

In turn, the GOP candidates, Alan Keyes, Hatch, Gary Bauer, Forbes, McCain and Bush all declared that Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy whose mother died in escaping to Florida, should not be returned to Cuba.

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They also said the boy's father, who wants him returned, should be brought to the United States to make the decision.

The nationally televised debate, the third in five days for the Republicans, was staged at Calvin College in a state Bush calls his "firewall." A victory in Michigan would help him rebound if he gets upset in earlier primary states.

McCain has made the Feb. 22 Michigan primary one of his top four targets, along with contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

The Jan. 24 Iowa caucuses open this year's election cycle.

In two debates last week, the candidates also wrestled with competing tax-cutting philosophies. Bush wants $483 billion in reductions over five years, with some of the money returned to low- and middle-income Americans to fit his "compassionate conservative" slogan.

McCain, who plans to flesh out his plans Tuesday, is proposing a $240 billion, five-year package that expands the lowest income tax bracket and creates tax-free savings accounts for the middle class.

His plan is smaller than Bush's because he would save 63 percent of future budget surpluses to finance Social Security. He also would use the surplus on Medicare and reducing the national debt.

Forbes still supports a flat tax, an income tax overhaul he touted in his failed 1996 campaign.

McCain is trying to change the subject from ethics to taxes, after spending a week fielding journalists' questions about his work in the Senate on behalf of major donors. The centerpiece of McCain's campaign is a promise to clean up the political culture.