ISSUES '72
More than crime in the streets or corruption in high places, more even than racial antogonisms or the general feeling of alienation, the domestic issue that rivets the attention of Americans in the economy. High taxes, higher prices, high unemployment— these are the pocketbook problems that the voters are talking about. To solve the problems, Richard Nixon and George McGovern are presenting not just contrasting programs but fundamentally different visions of what American society should be like. In a second Administration, Nixon would strive for economic stability above all else and seek to interfere as little as possible price private enterprise, aside from maintaining wage and price controls for a while. A McGovern Administration would take an activist lead in aiming to redistribute income and wealth more equitably among all citizens. That philosophical dispute colors the two candidates' positions on every basic aspect of the economic issue:
> Nixon would try to trim federal non-military spending; McGovern would raise it by tens of billions yearly.
> Nixon says that he would oppose tax increases of any kind; McGovern would press for severe tax increases on corporations, investors and heirs.
> Nixon would give the highest pri ority to battling inflation, even if his policies would prolong an uncomfortably steep rate of unemployment; McGovern would drive to restore full employment even at the risk of more inflation.
As the campaign pulls into the final stretch, both the President and the Senator have sharpened their rhetoric. Nixon declares: "I consider the battle against higher prices and higher taxes to be the major domestic issue of this presidential campaign. This Government does not need any more of your income, and it should not be allowed to take any more of your salary and wages in taxes."
For his part, McGovern last week repeated his promise to spend $10 billion on an emergency program to hire unemployed people and put them to work building housing, public-transit and sewage-plant projects. He also pledged again to spend additional billions for new education and welfare programs. "The choice," he asserted, "is between Mr. Nixon's large increases in military spending, accompanied by substantial cutbacks in education, health care and the like, and the McGovern program to move in the opposite direction — to cut defense spending, close tax loopholes and use precious public funds to meet our needs here at home."
Though voters are deeply, personally worried about these is sues, TIME correspondents' interviews across the country indicate that few people are listening to the fine points of the candidates' debate. The voters are choosing not only between two philosophies but between two men — and between the sometimes annoying known and the vaguely frightening unknown.