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TSONGAS: Well, I got into this race because I think the U.S. is in a long-term economic decline. I serve on seven corporate boards, and to serve on those boards is to just sit there and watch Japan and Germany like a tidal wave coming in. I saw it as my task to go out and sound the economic alarm -- what I used to call the economic Paul Revere stage.
If you wish to live well, you must produce well. That's the core, so the entire focus of my effort basically is, How do you end up with a viable, profitable, competitive manufacturing base? There is no other foundation for economic growth, long term. If you lose manufacturing, everything else falls apart.
So you either have an investment strategy or a consumption strategy, and this is where we have different views. George Bush's economic philosophy is purist laissez-faire: Go out and compete; good luck; I hope you make it. The purist laissez-faire approach does not work.
You have to understand where the engine is. The engine is manufacturing. So you take whatever bullets you have and you expend them to get the engine & running. When the engine runs, then you go on to other kinds of things. Now, the components for me would be:
First, basic science. If you don't have the ideas, you don't get products. The fact is that basic science in this country is devalued. So I would increase the National Science Foundation and the basic life-science agencies, in essence say to young people around this country, "Science and technology is the future. If you have a bent in that direction, stay there. We are going to assure you a future."
Second is to provide funding for research into process technologies. Where we do well is we come up with ideas. What the Japanese do well is they take those ideas and take them to market. So we end up with a Nobel Prize, they end up with a cash cow of production. Once you have those ideas, you have strategic technologies in which the government is going to have to come in and help finance in the predevelopment stages.
Then you get down to the great problem in this country, which is venture capital. I have been involved with two start-up companies, and the venture- capital situation is a nightmare. And that's why my capital-gains tax cut is targeted and is meant for long-term investments. Not only do I want capital to be available for this sector, but it would be patient capital. So if you were a speculator, in fact, we would charge you a higher tax. A research-and- development tax credit is basic. The temporary investment tax credit, the same kind of thing. Japan has half as many people as we do, and they have greater capital investment, and now they have surpassed us in research and development. The long-term result of that is inevitable. They are the superpower. We are the also-ran.
Go to any small businessperson trying to expand and ask them, What do you need? The answer is always the same: I need credit, need capital, I need skilled workers.
If we don't end up with a national ethic that values investment over consumption, we are not going to survive against nations that are resolute in their commitment to savings and investment. We need a President who recognizes that absent a viable manufacturing base, there is no U.S. economy.
Q. Governor Clinton, what is the matter with the Senator's plan?