THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609300078
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: 82 lines
In an unprecedented campaign debate, Republican and Democratic leaders clashed cordially Sunday night over taxes, Medicare and the record of the GOP-controlled Congress.
``We have delivered genuine welfare reform. . . . We had common sense health reform. . . . We're going to have immigration reform,'' said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. ``We have delivered for the American people,'' he said, with the first GOP-led Congress in 40 years on the verge of wrapping up.
House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt countered that Republicans ``tried to cut Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, they tried to cut school lunch and student loans.'' In addition, he said, the GOP tried to ``raise taxes on working Americans.''
Lott, of Mississippi, and Gephardt, of Missouri, were joined by House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota in colonial Williamsburg for the 60-minute debate televised live on PBS.
The clash occurred a little more than five weeks before Election Day. Moderator Jim Lehrer set the stakes in the opening moments of the encounter: ``The outcome of those (elections) will decide which party will control Congress'' in January.
In the debate's final moments, Lott said a renewed Republican majority would try again to pass tax cuts and balance the budget.
Daschle touted the Democrats' ``Families First'' agenda, which stresses modest measures to improve health and pension coverage for Americans.
For the most part, the congressional leaders discussed issues they have disagreed over since the day Gingrich took the gavel as speaker in January 1995. They rarely if ever raised their voices, though. And whatever their personal feelings - the relationship between Gephardt and Gingrich is particularly strained - they addressed one another by their first names as they sat facing each other at wooden desks.
The debate briefly turned pointed near the end, though.
Gingrich accused the AFL-CIO of spending millions to defeat Republicans this fall, using ``dues money that is coerced'' from its members.
Daschle instantly retorted that Republicans had invited polluters into the committee rooms last year ``to figure out ways'' to make the air and water dirtier.
The Democratic leaders challenged Republicans, too, on two of the most memorable moments of the 105th Congress - the twin government shutdowns of last winter.
``It was wrong. It was irresponsible,'' said Gephardt.
Neither Gingrich nor Lott defended the shutdowns, and the speaker conceded, ``I think we did learn a lot over that.''
But Gingrich also said Dick Morris, Clinton's disgraced former adviser, had been quoted saying he had planned for a shutdown for months. And Lott said the shutdown occurred when Clinton vetoed ``the first balanced budget in 26 years.''
Gingrich, architect of the 1994 GOP House takeover, countered the Democratic claims on Medicare by noting that the official trustees' report noted the giant program is ``going broke,'' and Republicans were trying to save it.
Daschle, too, criticized Republicans for proposing Medicare cuts to fund tax cuts for the rich, then turned his aim on their record on education. He said the GOP proposed ``the biggest cuts in the history of our country'' then detailed a long list of programs that the GOP had taken aim at. In addition, he said, they ``advocated the abolition of the Department of Education. I believe that's an extreme proposal.''
The setting for the leadership debate was the historic House of Burgesses in colonial Williamsburg, the seat of the first representative legislature in the Western Hemisphere.
KEYWORDS: DEBATE by CNB