Bush to Clinton Transition
Promises, Promises
President-elect Bill Clinton made many commitments to voters en route
to his election Tuesday. Here, from A to Z, are some of the policies
Clinton has said he would implement in his administration after he
became the nation's 42nd chief executive Jan. 20, 1992.
Published in the Arizona Republic
Sunday, November 8, 1992
By Peter Honey
The Baltimore Sun
- Abortion
Promises to sign Freedom of Choice Act. Would repeal "gag rule"
barring federally finance clinics from counseling pregnant women
about abortion. Would seek abortion-rights nominees for Supreme
Court.
- Agriculture
Would strive to open new markets abroad, especially Eastern Europe
and former Soviet bloc. Would negotiate to open closed markets
and level competition with countries that subsidize exports.
Would modernize domestic farm programs, expand agricultural research
and development. Cut red tape.
- Aids
Wants more funds for research, prevention, and treatment. Would
appoint AIDS policy director to cut red tape and implement
recommendations of National Commission on AIDS. Plans to speed
drug-approval process. Seeks to improve cooperation between
HIV-affected communities and federal authorities. Promote national
AIDS education and prevention. Would forbid health insurers from
denying coverage to HIV-positive applicants. Would lift ban on
HIV-positive foreigners traveling or immigrating to the United
States.
- Arms Control
Would ratify the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks treaty and subsequent
agreement of June 1992. Seek a comprehensive test-ban treaty. Would
maintain "stable nuclear deterrent." Focus research and development
on a limited strategic missile-defense treaty. Supports research on
limited missile-defense system against long-range missiles but rejects
a massive space-based defense such as "Brilliant Pebbles." Plans to
bolster International Atomic Energy Agency's Capacity to carry out
suprise inspections in member countries. Would use sanctions against
countries and companies spreading dangerous weapons. Would demand all
nations tighten arms-export laws and strengthen enforcement of
nuclear-wapons policies. Ensure agricultural and non-military loans
were used as intended and keep key technology and equipment out of
reach of dictators.
- Arts
Would continue federal funding for the arts.
- Bureauracy
Would cut the White House staff by 25 percent. Phase out 100,000
federal positions through attrition. Would require 3 percent
across-the-board federal administrative savings.
- Campaign Finance
Would place voluntary spending caps on House and Senate campaigns.
Limit political-action committee contributions to $1,000 an individual;
lower cost of television-advertising time.
- Children
Fully fund Head Start and other pre-school and development programs.
Increase legal deterrents of domestic violence. Give federal
assistance to schools needing metal detectors and security personnel
to crack down on playground shootings and violence. Establish
school-based clinics and drug education.
- China
Make China's "most favored nation" trade status contingent on
human-rights reforms and cutbacks in arms proliferation, plus opening
a a market to U.S. goods.
- Civil Rights
Supports strong enforcement of 1991 Civil Rights Act. Opposes racial
quotas. Would sign the Violence Against Women Act to toughen penalties
and deter domestic violence. Pledged to sign the "Motor Voter Bill"
to ease voter registration. Increase tribal governments. Supports
statehood for Washington D.C.
- Crime
Wants a National Police Corps in which college graduates could serve
as law-enforcement officers to repay student loans. Federal assistance
for crime-control. Favors death penalty.
- Defense
Would cut spending by $60 billion, 4 percent less than President Bush's
plan, by end of 1997. Redirect funds to rebuilding nation's
infrastructure and reducing the deficit. Reduce aircraft-carrier task
forces to 10 from 12. Build the C-17 transport plane, V-22 Osprey
tilt-rotor aircraft and up to three Seawolf submarines. Reform
defense-procurement system.
- Deficit
Expects to more than halve the deficit by 1996, to $141 billion, on
the assumption that the economy will improve under Clinton policies
and injection of funds from federal savings.
- Disabled
Fully implement and enforce Americans with Disabilities Act. Support
increased funding for special-education services. Improve enforcement
of laws that guarantee equal access to high-quality public education.
Seek to integrate disabled children in regular school activities.
- Drugs
Appoint a drug czar. Step up federal assistance for drug-treatment
programs.
- Economic Stategy
Invest more than $50 billion a year for four years to spur public
and private investment for jobs. Plans to save nearly $300 billion
for investments and deficit reduction by cutting spending and closing
tax loopholes. Would redirect more than $100 billion from defense
cuts over four years to rebuild America and deficit reduction. Would
create an Economic Security Council, similar to National Security
Council, to coordinate international economic policy. Cut entitlement
spending by $4.4 billion over the next four years and boost city
development through his coordinated economic plan.
- Education
Supports parental choice of schooling, but opposes using federal
funds to include private schools in the choice. Would give states
matching funds for high-school and job education. Would fully fund
Head Start. Favors national testing. Allow student-loan borrowers
to pay back money through payroll deductions and public service.
Institute a nationwide apprentice system for high-school students
not planning to attend college. Expand urban education services.
- Energy
Raise energy-efficiency standards and auto-fuel efficiency to 40 miles
per gallon. Promote use of natural gas bu oppose drilling in Artic
Refuge. Discourage nuclear power. Consider a carbon tax to punish
high carbon-dioxide emitters and tradable credits to reward companies
that lower emissions.
- Environment
Toughen penalties for pollution, including jail in cases of extreme
violations. Promote economic incentives, job retraining, community
development instead of weakening Endangered Species Act. Assert strong
U.S. positions on climate change, sustainable development and species
conservation. Follow conservationist approach to land and resource
issues, favoring wildlife and wetland protetion. Strengthen
environmental regulation while favoring economic incentives.
- Families
Sign the Family and Medical Leave Act to allow up to 12 weeks'
vacation time for nursing mothers or workers with sick family members.
Support legislation to report deadbeat parents to credit agencies
to restrict their borrowing for personal needs. Use Internal Revenue
Service to collect child support. Make it a felony to cross state
lines to avoid support payments.
- Foreign Aid
Increase food aid and raise funding for Food for Peace. Reform
foreign-aid system.
- Gun Control
Sign the "Brady Bill" to create a waiting period for purch of handguns.
Seek to ban assault rifles. Favors death penalty.
- Government Spending
Rein in "pork barrel" programs by reducing special-interest subsidies.
- Health Care
Promises health coverage for all Americans. But recipients would have
to share costs with uniform-payments procedure. Core benefits package
includes inpatient hospital care, prescription drugs and preventive
programs. Would give employers choice of private-insurance scheme
or public program. Would establish federal board to set annual
national health-care expenditure targets. Would raise medicare-B
costs for those earning $125,000 a year or more. Supports legislation
to deny tax breaks to drug companies that overcharge. Provide federal
support to HIV-infected people and voluntary, confidential AIDS and
HIV testing and counseling.
- Housing
Encourage home ownership for poor and first-time buyers. Raise
Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance to 95 percent
of average home price. Give federal support for low-income, long-term
housing-buyout programs. Strengthen state and local administration of
low-income home-rental program. Favors Community Development Block
Grants to boost low-income housing stock. Extend Low Income Housing
Tax Credit to spur private development. Combine housing programs with
training, education, health-care, drug-treatment and crime-prevention
programs.
- Immigration and Foreign Policy
Seek to eliminate immigrant-visa backlogs that can separate husbands
and wives for two years and extended family members for up to 15 years.
Ensure that temporary-worker programs do not displace Americans from
the home work force. Enable employers to hire workers abroad where
labor shortages exist. Stop the forced repatriation of Haitian
refugees and tighten existing embargoes to restore "an elected
government" in Haiti.
- Industry
Begin a $20 billion a year "Rebuild America Fund" to invest in
high-speed transportation, communications, environmental technology.
Create civilian research-and-development agency to unite business and
universities in technological development. Strive to convert defense
to peacetime industry. Provide tax breaks for companies investing in
research and development.
- Israel and Middle East
Supports current Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. Shows more sympathy
for Israeli position than his predecessor. Calls Jerusalem undivided
capital of Israel.
- Jobs
Expand job-training programs. Require low-income housing developers
to set up in poor neighborhoods and employ local residents. Wants
employers to spend 1.5 percent of payroll for continuing education
and training of all workers.
- Labor
Increase minimum wage in line with inflation. Sign Workplace Fairness
Act to ban permanent replacement of striking workers. Seek repeal of
Taft-Hartley Act to level playing field between labor and management.
- Line-Item Veto
Ask Congress to give the president the right to veto parts of bills
to "eliminate" pork-barrel spending.
- Lobbying
Streamline and toughen lobbying disclosure. Wants special-interest
groups to register with Office of Government Ethics within 30 days
of contacting federal officals. Lobbyists must regularly disclose
contacts and clients. Would seek five-year moratorium on ex-government
appointees lobbying federal agencies after leaving office. Insists
former senior officials pledge never to become registered agents
for foreign governments. Ask Congress to eliminate tax deductions
for special-interest lobbying expenses and stop "disguised" lobbying
by lawyers for foreign governments and powerful corporations.
- Military Abroad
Cut U.S. troop strength in Europe and Asia to 75,000 to 100,000 instead
of the previous administration target of 150,000. Keep U.S. forces in
Northeast Asia "as long as North Korea presents a threat to our South
Korean ally."
- National Security
Institute a five-year plan, reducing military personnel and spending,
shifting focus of conventional forces from East bloc to diversified
projection of power wherever U.S. national interests threatened.
Ask allies to shoulder more of international defense burden. Enhance
intelligence capabilities.
- Ozone
Endorses predecessor's commitment ot phase out production of
chloroflurocarbons and other chemicals theat erode Earth's
stratospheric ozone layer and heighten risk of skin cancer.
- Police
Seek to put 100,000 new police officers on patrol. Create National
Police Corps and encourage unemployed veterans and active military
officers to join law enforcement.
- Quality of Life
Propose comprehensive strategy to raise American living standards
with ultimate goal of phasing out welfare dependence.
- Rebuilding America
Create Rebuild America Fund with an annual $20 bill federal
investment for four years, leveraged with state, local, private-sector
and pension-fund contributions. User fees such as toll roads and
solid-waste disposal charges would help guarantee the investments.
- Small Business
Offer new-enterprise tax credit providing 50 percent tax exclusion
for those making long-term investment in new businesses. Give
tax breaks for investment in new plants and productive equipment
needed to compete internationally. Provide affordable health care
to small enterprises. Favors small-business conversion grants to
help small defense contractors switch to civilian production.
Encourage network of small-business community-development banks
to help low-income entrepreneurs.
- Space
Strive for greater international cooperation with Europeans, Russia,
and Japan. Continue National Aeronautic and Space Administration
projects aimed at understanding Earth. Involve NASA in more
educational projects. Continue development of space station Freedom
and maintain the space shuttle's central role in the civilian space
program.
- Taxes
Raise taxes on families earning more than $200,000 to pay for
middle-class tax cut. Give middle class a choce of tax breaks :
either a tax credit for children or a reduction in tax rate.
Favors a 50 percent exclusion of capital gains from taxation
for "long-term" investments in new businesses. Would not grant
a tax break for most securities and investments. End tax breaks
for companies that shift plants overseas. Reign in deductions
on executive salaries. Crack down on foreign companies that
manipulate tax laws. Expand Earned Income Tax Credit to guarantee
a working wage to reduce the number of "working poor." Increase
Earned Income Tax Credit to make up difference between a family's
earnings and poverty level. Would increase the taxable portion
of Social Security payments to the wealthy.
- Trade
Strive to reduce trade barriers by completing General Agreement
on Tarrifs and Trade talks. Endorse North American Free Trade
Agreement, with reservations, but seek tougher environmental and
labor protections in the pact. Extend "Super 301" legislation
to prod trading partners into opening their markets to U.S. goods.
Seek to expand development and export of U.S. biotechnology,
superconductors, and computer-integraded manufacturing.
- Urban Development
Seek to boost city development through national economic strategy,
incentives and grants to revitalize urban economy. Expand education,
job-traing and and child-care services. Provide federal subsidies
for cities that adopt revitalization programs. Community Development
Block Grants to rebuild roads, bridges, etc. Create network of
community-development banks to probide small loans for low-income
entrepreneurs and inner city homeowners. Favors urban-enterprise
zones with tax and regulatory incentives for businesses to set up
shop in inner cities ; City Assistance Flexibility Program to allow
cities to redirect 15 percent of their federal assistance for
revitalization strategies.
- Veterans
Opposes opening Veterans Affairs hospitals to non-veterans. Seeks
to cut red tape for outpatient services and benefits. Supports
veterans' mental-health programs. Gradually scale down military
forces from active duty to National Guard. Provide early-retirement
incentives, including prorated pensions. Allow military personnel
a one-year educational paid leave of absence to train for civilian
professions. Convert closed military bases to shelters for homeless,
with priority for veterans. Make resolution of the POW-MIA issue
a national priority, insisting on full accounting before normalizing
relations with Viet-Nam.
- Welfare
Scrap the current welfare system and install one that would not make
welfare "a way of life." Provide training, education and child care
to recipients for two years, after which they must take a job in the
private sector or perform community service. Expand the earned-income
tax credit for working poor, create savings accounts that make it easier
to save.
- Women
Support efforts to combat sex discrimination. Sign Women's Health
Research Act and similar legislaton to give more attention to women's
health problems. Seek to lift the ban on the use of fetal tissue for
cancer-cure research, particularly breast cancer. Support testing of
RU-486, a controversial French abortion drug. Strive to hire and
appoint more women at all levels of government. Enforce tough
sexual-harassment guidelines in all government agencies. Would
grant additional tax relief to families with children.
- X-Ratings
Defend freedoms of speech and artistic expression "by opposing
censorship or 'content restrictions' on grants made by the National
Endowment for the Arts."
- Yugoslavia
Support U.S. participation in U.N. airlift to besieged Bosnia-Herzgovinia.
Would seek U.N. authorization for air strikes to defend releif operation
and give U.S. "military support" for such and operation.
- Zeros
Even if Clinton does everything he says he will, after four years
there will still be nine zeros in a $141,000,000,000 deficit.
HTML Code .... Stanley C. Kitching
HTML Date .... 2009-11-29