ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611050009
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
BUDGET AND TAXES
Bill Clinton
Balance the budget by 2002. Cut taxes $111 billion over six years, with cuts aimed mainly at helping children and education, including a $500-per-child tax credit, tax relief for college tuition, and expanded Individual Retirement Accounts that can be used for such things as medical emergencies, buying a first home and education. Opposes balanced-budget amendment.
Bob Dole
Cut income tax rates by 15 percent, halve capital gains tax rate to 14 percent, offer $500-per-child tax credit for 24 million low- and middle-income families. Economic plan would cut taxes $548 billion over six years. Simplify tax system, ending many loopholes, reducing tax rates and increasing incentives to save. Supports balanced-budget constitutional amendment, and would balance the federal budget by 2002 without touching Social Security.
Ross Perot
Form a commission to study changes in the tax system, including such options as a sales tax. Computer experts from top universities would help develop a computer model to ``test drive'' different plans. Wants a ``paperless'' tax system, with future tax increases requiring approval from voters. Favors balanced-budget amendment. Speeches are critical of tax cuts.
CRIME
Bill Clinton
Provide money for state and local juvenile drug courts for nonviolent offenders. Seeks money to hire the remainder of the 100,000 police called for in the 1994 crime bill. Encourages neighborhood watch programs by residents; support victims' rights constitutional amendment; fight attempts to repeal ban on assault weapons; wants to try violent juveniles as adults. Bar gun purchases for anyone who commits domestic violence.
Bob Dole
Double federal spending for state prison construction, try violent juvenile criminals as adults, double the penalties for gang members who commit federal crimes. Favors a computerized tracking system to keep handguns from criminals and increasing sentences for gun crimes. Supports constitutional amendment for victims' rights.
Ross Perot
Make literacy, good conduct and marketable skills a condition of release from prison for violent criminals; toughen penalties for violent crimes by gangs; make prisons less comfortable and more efficient; deny gun purchases to anyone with a criminal record; make federal facilities available as rehabilitation centers for youths convicted of drug or violent crimes; try public-private experiments to encourage gang members to try legal enterprises.
DRUGS
Bill Clinton
Provide more drug treatment in prisons, and seeks more money for drug-prevention programs in schools. Boost mandatory penalties for selling drugs to children. Increase information-sharing with other countries on drug trafficking and provide military support to reduce the flow of drugs.
Bob Dole
With the slogan of ``Just Don't Do It,'' use the presidency as a bully pulpit to discourage drug use, particularly among youths. Increase penalties for drug dealers, and step up drug-interdiction efforts by the National Guard and possibly the military. Promises to cut teen drug use in half during his administration.
Ross Perot
Increase spending on addiction and drug-education programs, deny parole to convicted drug dealers, and broaden the powers of the drug czar. Promises to improve the coordination and efficiency of federal, local and foreign efforts to fight drug trafficking.
EDUCATION
Bill Clinton
Expand Head Start program for low-income preschools, and deploy 1 million volunteer tutors to help kids read. Favors charter schools and giving students a choice among public schools, but opposes providing money to pay for tuition at private or parochial schools. Provide $5 billion of federal money for school renovation and $1,000 grants to top 5 percent of high school graduates. Families would choose between a tax credit of $1,500 for each of the first two years of college, or a $10,000-a-year deduction for college tuition. Connect all classrooms to the Internet.
Bob Dole
Eliminate Department of Education. Provide vouchers of up to $1,500 for low- and middle-income parents to use in private and parochial schools, and support ``charter schools'' that have more freedom to innovate. Allow parents to deduct interest on student loans and set up tax-free savings accounts for education. Opposes Clinton's Goals 2000 program as imposing ``misguided, ideological rules'' on parents and local communities.
Ross Perot
Recommends beginning education of at-risk children immediately after birth and teaching foreign languages at an early age. Criticizes federal efforts in education as ineffective, and emphasizes local control over schools. Would emphasize quality of teachers, rather than facilities. Favors small neighborhood schools near a child's home, especially in the primary grades.
EMPLOYMENT
Bill Clinton
Consolidate many federal job-training programs into $2,600 grants that workers can use for tuition or training. Allow workers to take 24 hours of unpaid leave a year for children's education and routine medical needs. Let workers trade overtime for time off. Encourage companies to provide health care and pensions for employees. Grant $3.4 billion in tax incentives for hiring welfare recipients, and urge businesses to hire them.
Bob Dole
Consolidate $5 billion annual budget for federal job-training programs into block grants to the states. Encourage states to experiment with vouchers that workers can use to pay for their own education or training. Allow workers to get tax-free assistance from employers for college and postgraduate studies, and allow workers to trade overtime for paid time off.
Ross Perot
Washington's relationship with business should be ``supportive'' rather than ``adversarial.'' Believes better trade deals would create jobs in this country rather than abroad, and that government should help welfare recipients obtain workplace skills.
ENVIRONMENT
Bill Clinton
Opposes ``takings'' bill to limit government's ability to take private property and require compensation if regulations reduce a property's value. Favors penny-a-pound tax on Florida sugar growers to help pay for restoration of Everglades. Reduce, but not eliminate, the amounts that polluters pay for Superfund cleanups. Opposes oil and gas development in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. New environmental rules would be based on risks to health of children, rather than the overall population.
Bob Dole
Give states more responsibility for environmental regulation. Favors ``takings'' bill, and would require new regulations to pass a tough cost-benefit analysis. Sharply reduce or eliminate amount that polluters pay for Superfund hazardous-waste cleanups. Increase spending to restore the Everglades, but opposes penny-a-pound tax on Florida sugar growers. Supports allowing oil and gas development on part of the Arctic refuge.
Ross Perot
Emphasizes new technologies and business incentives rather than tougher regulation. Research would include alternative energy sources such as hydroelectric and thermal technology; consumer materials that don't harm the environment; and recycling and waste-disposal systems. End subsidies for environmentally destructive activities in mining and timber industries. Favors ``takings'' bill, with some restrictions.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENSE
Bill Clinton
Unlike four years ago, when he saw foreign policy as mainly an extension of economic policy, Clinton now says, "America cannot be the world's policeman. But we can be the world's peacemaker.'' His interventions, sometimes contrary to popular opinion, have been motivated by a desire to relieve strife in troubled areas as much as a desire to assert U.S. strategic interests. Seeks more international cooperation to fight terrorism, and an expansion of NATO. Wants to develop an anti-missile defense system, but postpone a decision on deployment until at least 2000.
Bob Dole
Says the world depends on American leadership, but appears to have a pragmatic approach that would employ U.S. power to assert carefully defined U.S. interests. Criticizes Clinton for indecisiveness, deferring too much to international consensus, and being too lenient toward Russia because of a ``romantic'' vision of the country. Favors expanding NATO, and wants to spend more money on an anti-missile defense system that would be in place by 2003.
Ross Perot
Favors special tax to pay for wars. Would not commit U.S. troops unless the public first supports their mission; says the president must define the issues at stake and the objectives. Re-evaluate whether the United States should continue providing the defense for Japan and Germany. Use U.S. military to fight terrorism within the United States and internationally.
GOVERNMENT REFORM
Bill Clinton
Opposes term limits. Has called for independent commission to recommend campaign-finance reforms.
Bob Dole
Favors 12-year, non-retroactive term limits for Senate; says House should determine its own rules. Has called for independent commission to recommend campaign-finance reforms.
Ross Perot
Favors term limits. Require House members to raise all money in their district, and senators to raise all money within their state. Replace Electoral College with direct vote. Hold elections on weekends.
HEALTH CARE
Bill Clinton
Cut growth in Medicare spending to 7.3 percent a year from current 9 percent, thus spending $124 billion less over six years. Expand Medicare coverage for preventive care and families of Alzheimer's patients. Offer unemployed workers subsidies to pay for health insurance for six months.
Bob Dole
Cut growth in Medicare spending to 5.9 percent a year from current 9 percent, thus spending $168 billion less over six years. Give middle- and low-income families a tax deduction for health care costs. Favors expansion of tax-favored medical savings accounts and limits on damages in medical malpractice cases.
Ross Perot
Form a commission to develop solutions to Medicare funding. Any revamping of health-care system should allow doctors and patients to retain control of medical decisions. Encourage small employers and self-employed to create insurance pools.
TRADE
Bill Clinton
Advocates free trade. But his administration has often threatened to raise trade barriers in order to obtain concessions from trading partners. Supports U.S. trade law that lets the United States unilaterally punish countries for unfair trade.
Bob Dole
Advocates free trade, and supported NAFTA and GATT trade accords. But lately, he has warned that the World Trade Organization, created to enforce the liberalized trading regime under the GATT pact, could infringe on U.S. law. Supports U.S. trade law that lets the United States unilaterally punish countries for unfair trade.
Ross Perot
Says ``one-sided'' trade deals like NAFTA and GATT have sent American manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. Says trade policy should protect U.S. interests against trading partners that subsidize their exports, erect barriers to imports, and compete unfairly with their cheap labor costs.
LENGTH: Long : 209 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. BILL CLINTON\Democrat. 2. BOB DOLE\Republican. 3.by CNBROSS PEROT\Reform Party. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT