Editorial: Serious debate on the issues

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 9:34 a.m.

Voters should be breathing a sigh of relief that the race for the White House has so far remained focused on the issues and has not degenerated into the negative snarling that has been the hallmark of recent presidential campaigns. For instance, GOP presidential hopeful John McCain is making sure that there is a real debate among Republicans over federal tax policy. The other Republican candidates have tripped over themselves in an effort to outdo each other, proposing huge tax cuts that they believe are politically popular. But McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, says that the federal government's budget surplus should be used in a mixed fashion: reducing the national debt, shoring up Social Security and providing modest tax cuts.

McCain would seek $237.5 billion in tax cuts, while the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, wants to cut taxes by $483 billion over five years. Bush went so far last week to say he would implement "tax cuts, so help me God," a pledge eerily reminiscent of that taken by his father. During the 1988 campaign for the White House, President Bush said, "Read my lips: No new taxes" -- a vow he later broke.

The GOP-led Congress tried to push through a big tax cut last year, but President Clinton -- emboldened by polls showing that the American public really didn't think such drastic reductions were necessary during an economic boom -- vetoed the plan. While reducing the deficit also is important to Republicans, tax cuts still resonate with the GOP faithful who dominate the voting in primaries, making it difficult for a candidate to break away from the tax cut orthodoxy.

But the fact is, during the 1990s, steps taken by President Clinton and Congress to reduce the federal budget deficit helped boost this economy. Tinkering with this successful economic strategy is risky business. Although McCain still is a longshot to get the nomination, it is heartening to see that he has made the other candidates seriously address this issue, instead of being able to coast on tax cut platitudes that most view skeptically anyway.

Just as McCain has been able to inject a real debate over substantive issues in the GOP race, Bill Bradley has done much the same thing in his contest with Vice President Al Gore to be the Democatic presidential nominee, especially in the area of health care. While Bradley's call for universal health care coverage has its own shortcomings -- a former Clinton administration official estimates it would cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years -- the fact is it focuses attention on the need for the federal government to do more to ensure that people don't go without proper medical care. Gore wants to expand health insurance coverage, but wants to tackle it in a step-by-step plan, a realistic acknowledgement that universal health care can't happen all at once.

The real test in civility will be in the coming days and weeks as the first caucuses and primaries close in, possibly prompting some candidates lagging in the polls to unleash negative advertising. For now, though, it has been a presidential campaign that has been informative -- let's hope it stays that way.