Yes, There Are Issues

For candidates, budget realism is the new litmus test

One would not mistake it for a meeting of the American Economic Association. Nor has it yet taken on the serious sheen of a think-tank symposium on economic policy. But Campaign '88 is changing, slowly evolving into a serious debate over budgetary blueprints for post-Reagan America. In the wake of the October stock market crash, the universal lament was that none of the candidates, with the exception of Democrat Bruce Babbitt, was talking realistically about ways to reduce the deficit. Now, surprisingly, a demanding electorate and a hectoring press corps have forced the candidates to defend their fiscal proposals, and a...

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