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The centerpiece of the Carter campaign is his promise to carry out the same kind of reorganization of Federal Government that he accomplished in Georgia. Insisting that it is impossible to give any specifics until the matter has been thoroughly studied, he nonetheless predicts that he will reduce the number of federal bureaus from 1,900 to 200. "If you don't want to see the Government completely reorganized," he tells his audiences, "don't vote for me."
On the all-important issue of the economy, while liberal candidates support large-scale public works programs to relieve unemployment, Carter stresses the role of free enterprise in providing more jobs. He does not believe that the Government should guarantee every American a job, and he opposes the Humphrey-Hawkins bill that would commit the Government to bringing unemployment down to 3% within three or four years. To do that, Washington would have to spend so much that inflation would rage anew. But in some cases, Carter would have the Government make direct payments to industry to subsidize more jobs. If a company had to lay off workers, the Government could offer to pay part of their wages for a limited time. He argues that this would reduce the need for welfare and unemployment compensation and would be far less costly than public service employment. Carter would also use the Government to create Civilian Conservation Corps-type jobs for 18- to 21-year-olds who are out of work.
Unlike the liberals, Carter has not called for curbing the independence of the Federal Reserve Board, though he mildly complains about its tight money policies of the recent past. He favors more vigorous antitrust action but, in contrast to Birch Bayh, Mo Udall and Fred Harris, he does not call for totally breaking up the big oil companies. In his opinion, they should be forced to sell off their coal and uranium production operations, and to choose between being in either the "retail" (gas stations) or "wholesale" (exploration, drilling and refining) end of the business.
One reason many labor leaders are suspicious of Carter is his stand on right-to-work laws. He has told union leaders that if they can persuade Congress to pass a repeal of the laws, he would sign it as President. But he refuses to take the lead in the matter and even suggests that he favors the right-to-work concept. Aware of these ambiguities, he adds: "The truth is, I just don't think it's a very important issue—and I don't think the unions really do either."
Carter keeps promising a more detailed analysis of his tax program. He calls for the elimination of most income tax deductions, which in turn would permit a general lowering of tax withholding rates. This sensible reform has long been advocated by some liberal economists. But in response to a question put by an aide to Henry Jackson at a forum in Boston last week, Carter said that deductions for home mortgages should also be cast out. Sure enough, Scoop Jackson thundered two days later: "What Carter is threatening, in actuality, is the destruction of the working-and middle-class American family."