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Saturday Morning News

Campaign 2000: How Will the Economy Affect the Vote?

Aired July 29, 2000 - 9:17 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to Philadelphia.

Now, the job, the pocketbook, the retirement nest egg, those economic issues will be at the center of the party conventions this summer. And joining us now are two guests with some special insights into that national debate.

Larry Lindsey is an economist, author, and former member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. And he is now economic advisor to George W. Bush, who is going to be the star of this show.

And Rich Dunham is White House correspondent and national political reporter for "Business Week." That magazine published a story this week examining how the candidates and their parties can contribute to what is being called the new economy.

Welcome to both of you.

RICH DUNHAM, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "BUSINESS WEEK": Thank you.

LARRY LINDSEY, BUSH ECONOMIC ADVISOR: Good to be here.

HARRIS: Glad to have you guys join us this morning.

Let's begin with this report that you put together in this magazine. I find it fairly interesting that what you've come up with is something that seems basically that says that neither candidate is really addressing what people in the new economy are saying is most important to them. Is that what you found?

DUNHAM: Well, it's that there are different issues in the new economy than in the old economy. Rather than having tax cuts or having national defense being top issues, people are concerned about education. People are concerned about new economic issues that are out there like privacy.

And the problem for the two candidates is that they do not address it in precisely the way voters want. In terms of education or in terms of entitlement spending, the new proposals on the Medicare drug benefit, Al Gore would create a new entitlement. And people don't necessarily want something like that. But again, the two proposals - or the two candidates - have slightly different views here. HARRIS: Is that how you see it?

LINDSEY: Well, I think what's at stake is that the private economy has been doing great these last eight years. Business is doing well. Our inventors are doing well. We have new firms.

But the public sector, the part of the economy that the government is in charge of, hasn't been doing so well. Look at education.

In the last eight years, has education gotten better? I don't think so. Social Security we know is $1.4 trillion more broke than it was eight years ago. Medicare is in worse shape than it was eight years ago.

The morale of our troops, our national defense, is lower than it was eight years ago. So while the private economy has been booming, what the government has been in charge of has been getting worse.

HARRIS: Well, let me ask you, let's look at some polling figures that have just come out. And some very interesting numbers there that seem to indicate that Al Gore, even though he's been part of this administration that's overseen this great era of prosperity that we've got, is not getting any credit whatsoever.

In fact, many people say he deserves absolutely no credit at all for the way the economy is going right now. And so when people were asked which candidate would do a better job at keeping the economy strong and promoting new business formation, George W. Bush, who does not necessarily have a national reputation in those things and hasn't had any control of - it's hard to argue that Al Gore has either. But Al Gore has been part of an administration that has seen this prosperity that this country is in right now. And he's given no credit for that.

LINDSEY: Well, they've been in charge while the private sector has boomed. But if you look at how they performed with the things they've been in charge of - education, Social Security, Medicare, defense - they've fallen flat on our faces. We've had a prosperity, yes, but without any purpose and one which the government has squandered.

HARRIS: But in the past, hasn't it always been the case that any administration that is in place during such a time, they normally get, if you will, a bounce from that? And why is it you don't think that that's happening this time around?

DUNHAM: Well, I think that voters really don't think that the politicians are responsible for the economic growth. I think President Clinton does get some credit. The Republican Congress gets some credit. Alan Greenspan gets far more.

But I think that people think that it's the new entrepreneurs. It's the new companies, the tech companies, that are really responsible, rather than an individual. And Al Gore does not get the credit that Bill Clinton does for the economy. HARRIS: So then what does Bush do to capitalize on this?

LINDSEY: Well, I think when people look at the platforms the two candidates are running on, and you ask yourself, "Which platform is more likely to continue the prosperity, more likely to fix the tax system, improve education, to make the economy hum for another 10 years?" George Bush wins hands down.

HARRIS: That's a case that we'll debate here later on this week, or next week I should say.

Larry Lindsey and Rich Dunham, thanks very much for your time and your insight this morning. We'll see how things shape up here in Philadelphia.

LINDSEY: Thank you.

DUNHAM: Thanks a lot.

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