A Victory For Clinton

Another four years, another new president?  The election of 1996 for president

moves closer everyday as the republican Robert Dole, and the president Bill Clinton fight it

out.  Far behind and by all means out of the race is Ross Perot.  The polls show

Dole-Kemp behind Clinton-Gore, and the results will stay this way for several key reasons.

Clinton will serve another four years as president since Americans know what to expect

from him as president.  On several key issues, such as the budget, Dole has provided the

voters with vague ideas on how he will tackle his promises.  As three key issues are

examined we find Dole to make claims that can easily be doubted. 

Clinton's claims and

views are backed up with four years of experience.  Clinton's four years as president has

seen a stable economy, and he will try to keep this up for another four years.  The

balancing of the budget proves to stand as one of the largest issues going into the election.

Dole has talked about putting up 23% of federal spending up for cuts.  Dole has

also said he will not touch the areas of social security, defense, interest on the debt,

Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, military pensions, and the Energy Department

research labs with cuts.  This means under Dole we would be likely to see cuts in national

parks with the number of rangers, the Border Patrol with fewer agents, the Bureau of

Prisons with fewer prison spaces, NASA with fewer space shuttle flights, the FBI with

fewer agents, drug interdiction with 2,960 fewer DEA agents, and education with fewer

students in Head Start.  On the record Dole has suggested cuts in the Energy Department,

and the possibility of also eliminating the Commerce Department.  These cuts alone would

not achieve the goal of eliminating the budget deficit by 2002 which shows why Dole's

ideas are too vague.  In the reality for a balanced budget Transportation and the FBI could

face cuts of up to 40%.  Clinton, on the other hand, focuses his cuts on other areas in

order to meet the seven years standard on balancing the budget.  Clinton would plan to

make the majority of his cuts on Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare.  Clinton has already

started dipping into these areas by passing the welfare reform act.  The president's ideas

are more focused on these specifics of balancing the budget which is why he will most

likely be re-elected.  Another decisive area in the 1996 elections exists in the area of taxes.

Taxes, always a big issue to voters, will be another key to winning the 1996

presidential election.  Dole has said that he will focus his policies on a platform of sweeping

tax cuts.  Dole talks of a 15% across the board tax rate cut, and an end to the Internal

Revenue Service as it is know today.  Dole claims that tax cuts are the key to faster growth.

Dole also believes that he can cut taxes significantly and still execute his balanced budget

plan.  Clinton plan proves to be more acceptable.  In the 1980's tax cuts resulted in

massive deficits.  The growth argument Dole makes would most likely be proven false as

the tax cuts in correspondence with the budget deal would just balloon the deficit.  A

majority of Americans realize this from past experiences, and will tend to lean toward the

President whose focuses are more targeted.  Clinton's plans call for a targeted capital gains

tax cut for the middle-income families who sell their homes, a $1,500 a year tuition tax

credit for the first two years of college, expanded tax free Individual Retirement Accounts,

and a credit to businesses that hire people off welfare.  Voters will chose Clinton again for

his less drastic and more sensible tax cuts.  Along with the budget and tax cuts the issue of

abortion completes the three most decisive factors in a win for President Clinton.

Bill Clinton's views on abortion were made clear when he vetoed a measure to ban

partial birth or late-term abortions.  Clinton said he vetoed the measure because it did not

include exemptions for women who face serious health consequences if they carried the

fetus to term.  Clinton made his claim that this was a life saving measure for a small, but

vulnerable group of women and families in this country.  While Clinton's views are more

for the women carrying the baby themselves, Mr. Dole tends to belong more to the pro-life

side.  Dole's views are between the GOP's opposing factions.  He is not completely for the

rights of the unborn like Pat Buchanan, nor pro-choice like many other Republicans.  For

this reason Dole is likely to lose a number of votes from the female population.  As Clinton

made his views clear, he also supports government aid for the less advantaged to help the

women pay for this procedure.  Once again American's will side with Bill Clinton because

he has the experience, and is focused in the issues.

Come next year Bill Clinton will serve another four years as presi