Democratic Candidates Differ on Economy, but Often Subtly

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/politics/campaigns/31ECON.html

Democratic Candidates Differ on Economy, but Often Subtly
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS


ASHINGTON, Dec. 28 — As the Democratic presidential candidates put the economy at the front and center of their campaigns, their differences boil down to a handful of issues: how much to roll back tax cuts, how much to raise spending, how much to reduce deficits and how to approach trade.... varying combinations of the same basic proposals.

All the candidates say they would repeal at least some of the tax cuts enacted during the Bush presidency, a high-risk stance that amounts to running for office on a pledge to raise taxes. The last Democratic presidential candidate to try that was Walter F. Mondale, who offered it in 1984 as part of a deficit reduction plan; he lost to President Ronald Reagan in a landslide.

Most of the candidates have also proposed large new health care programs, with Representative Richard A. Gephardt's the most ambitious, costing more than $200 billion a year. And none of the candidates have fully explained how to steer the federal budget back from the Bush-era deficits to the surpluses created in the Clinton administration.
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The principal differences among the candidates lie in their tone and philosophy toward business and free trade. The debate on those issues leaves them sounding at times as if they are far more divided over Mr. Clinton's economic legacy than President Bush's, which they uniformly condemn.

Mr. Clinton was the Democrat who gave his party a new message, declaring that "the era of big government is over" and preaching budget restraint, middle-class tax cuts and free trade.<snip>

Others are calling for a new era of more activist government; the most concrete differences among these candidates are how much they would raise taxes and how much they would spend on programs like new health care initiatives.<snip>


As for Mr. Lieberman, John Kerry and Carol Moseley Braun, they all voted for free-trade deals in the Senate, and still defend them.
Dr. Dean has flipped back and forth on trade. Though a supporter of Nafta when he was governor of Vermont, he began his presidential campaign by proposing that the United States reduce trade barriers only with countries that adopt American standards on labor and the environment. He later retreated, saying that trading partners need adopt only basic standards like allowing collective bargaining.
But all the candidates, acknowledging the anger in many states about the loss of jobs to China and Mexico, say they would be much tougher in acting against "unfair" trade practices.<snip>

"Whoever is president in 2005 is going to be staring at a gigantic budget hole, and filling that hole will be a monumental task," said Alan Blinder, a professor of economics at Princeton University who has advised both Dr. Dean and Mr. Kerry. "You have to make a distinction between someone's desires and what they can actually do."