The Political Interest: Still Waiting for Bill's Call

Interest Still Waiting for Bill's Call

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-- Clinton has repeatedly spoken of raising the tax rate on wealthy Americans to 36%, and his economic advisers are now talking of a further rise to 40%. ; Moynihan is incredulous. "At that rate," he says, "all the loopholes we eliminated in the 1986 tax bill would come back like a hydraulic phenomenon."

All of these "revenue raisers seem good on paper," Moynihan says, "but we established a very important principle in the '86 law: we want to do everything we can to minimize tax-code-driven economic activity. We shouldn't go backward on that."

But "we should go forward" with welfare reform, Moynihan insists, and he is displeased with Shalala's contention that health care comes first. "Believe it or not," says Moynihan, "we can do two things at the same time. And this is something we'd better do." Moynihan believes "back- burnering" welfare reform could become Clinton's "very own 'Read my lips' debacle. When the President seemed to be in trouble near the end of the campaign, he pulled out those 'We will end welfare as we know it' commercials," says Moynihan. "That single promise drove the numbers in his favor all along, and they did the trick again in some key states in those last days." With a smile that ensures the word is understood as a euphemism, Moynihan says he "suspects" that Shalala opposes Clinton's scheme to force welfare recipients to work after two years on the dole. "But it's the President's preference that matters," he says, "and I'm for it, despite the fact that by 1996 you might have to put 1.5 million people into public-sector jobs, a number that is almost half the current federal civilian work force." Clinton's plan will generate fierce opposition from the public-employee unions that routinely fund Democratic campaigns, but Moynihan appears unfazed. "It's in the President's own political interest to get this on track," he says, "and if the Administration doesn't push it, well I hope they don't think I'll be pliant on this one."

Thus speaks a friend Bill Clinton ought to find the time to call.

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