Clinton, Dole In ‘Great Tax Debate’ Candidates Also Involved In Duel Of Bridge Metaphors

With dueling bridge metaphors and arguments over taxes, President Clinton, Bob Dole and their running mates traversed the Midwest on Monday as they opened the final phase of a presidential campaign that, so far, has seen the incumbent transformed from a political hasbeen to an odds-on favorite for re-election.

In St. Louis with Jack Kemp, Dole mocked Clinton’s calls for a “bridge to the 21st century,” saying that Clinton’s would be “a toll bridge … a bridge to a future of higher taxes …” By contrast, he declared, he would be “a bridge to lower taxes.”

Citing Ronald Reagan as an example of successful tax cutting, Dole said that “sometimes it seems that our opponents have a little - a million little plans for how government can dictate to the American people what it thinks is best. Jack Kemp and I have one big plan … Give American families back more of their hard-earned money.”

Clinton, diving into what he called “the great tax debate,” remembered Reagan, too, but to opposite effect, warning that Dole’s proposal for $548 billion in tax cuts would inevitably swell the deficit.

“Our tax cut plan is paid for - line by line, dime by dime,” the president said to a crowd of more than 20,000.

“The other guys will say … ‘We’ll give you more money, vote for us. Why do you care about the deficit?’ ” Clinton said.

He warned that a larger deficit will force up interest rates meaning “a higher home mortgage payment; a higher car payment; a higher credit card payment” and fewer investments to create new jobs.

Dole, picking up a line used by nearly every trailing candidate, compared himself to former president Harry S. Truman, saying that “like Truman I am going to win a comefrom-behind victory for president of the United States.”

Should Dole succeed, however, his effort would dwarf Truman’s. Despite visible fatigue and a hoarse and raspy voice, Clinton enters the final stage of what he calls “the last campaign of my life” in an enviable spot: No candidate with a double-digit lead on Labor Day has lost a presidential election since modern polling began in the 1930s.

Dole’s task would seem beyond achievement but for one fact - just last year, Clinton seemed as much a long-shot for victory as his Republican challenger appears now.