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Kennedy often seems to be trying to accommodate himself to as broad a range of views as possible. Sometimes he sounds much like a New Frontier liberal. To Wall Street investors in New York, and again at a rally in Louisville, he said that Americans "are not asking much from Government," and then went on to define "not much" as jobs, moderate supermarket prices, reasonable mortgage rates, good schools, a healthy environment and safe streets. Providing all that in today's world economy is quite an order, even for a pragmatist. On other occasions, Kennedy has seemed to be harking back to a 19th century form of liberalism. In his New York speech, he said: "We are making a clean break with the New Deal and even the 1960s. We reject the idea that Government knows best across the board, that public planning is inherently superior or more effective than private action. There is now a growing consensus, which I share, that Government intervention in the economy should come as only a last resort."
This general principle provides for considerable flexibility. On the one hand, Kennedy was an avid proponent of deregulating the airlines, and he is now sponsoring legislation to deregulate the trucking industry.
On the other hand, Kennedy wants the Government to be more aggressive in intervening to stop large corporations from dominating their markets. He has co-sponsored a bill that would greatly restrict mergers among large corporations. He urges more vigorous enforcement of existing antitrust laws, arguing that some big corporations, like Big Government, are "too large and unresponsive."
On other issues, Kennedy has blurred his positions or moved them toward the right. In January he endorsed Carter's proposed overall fiscal 1980 spending of $531 billion, with a deficit of about $29 billion. Kennedy urged, however, that $4 billion be cut from the defense budget—he did not say exactly what he would trim—and spent on domestic needs, such as health. But by the time the Senate voted on the budget, Kennedy had changed his mind about reducing Pentagon spending. Far from cutting the defense budget, he voted to increase it to $141.2 billion, $18.5 billion more than Carter's original proposal. Said conservative Democrat Ernest Rollings of South Carolina to Kennedy as they left the Senate floor: "I saw you vote for that, Ted. You ain't so bad. There's hope for you yet." Other Democrats thought otherwise. Complained Budget Committee Chairman Edmund Muskie of Maine: "Like a good New England sailor, Kennedy has learned to tack with the wind." Kennedy did so, moreover, without explaining whether he wants to get the extra money for the Pentagon by cutting domestic programs or by increasing the budget deficit.
Kennedy has also shifted on national health insurance. Originally, he wanted to replace all private programs with a comprehensive Government insurance plan that would cost an estimated $130 billion a year. He now proposes that employers be required to broaden the coverage they already provide for workers and then-families and that the Government pick up the medical bills of everyone else. Carter's approach is somewhat similar, but he would have the program adopted in steps over five to ten years. Kennedy reckons the cost to the Government in the first year at $28.6 billion more than it now pays for health care; his critics say it could hit $45 billion.