The Jackson Package
Gigot, Paul A.
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL. 21, NO. 6 / JUNE 1988 Paul A. Gigot THE JACKSON PACKAGE Jesse has moved from black capitalism to the loony left-and so go the Democrats! Ideologically, the campaign...
...He hates it...
...America has, he says, "a casino economy whose industry and agriculture have been weakened by eight years of mismanagement, speculation, and corporate greed...
...So it may be that his platform manifesto reflects the work of his advisers, who as everyone knows by now include Robert Borosage and others from the Institute for Policy Studies...
...But what he supports is worse-government influence over private investment that would amount to control over world capital flows...
...The current GATT negotiations offer the best vehicle for meeting these goals...
...interest rates also mean high mortgage rates, making it more difficult for Americans to afford the homes they want, with enough left over for other necessities such as the education of their children and adequate medical care...
...Jackson claims this isn't unilateral disarmament, but how else to interpret proposals that would degrade all three legs of our nuclear-defense triad...
...military aid to "the Frontline states" on South Africa's border...
...This country is still playing catch-up...
...Jackson doesn't say much about the Soviet Union, except to imply that it isn't much of a threat...
...Perhaps Jackson, like Michael Dukakis, simply thinks it's wiser to invest in conventional weapons than in nukes...
...While the Soviets are deciding, Jackson recommends that we dispense with every important new U.S...
...Jackson takes a laudable populist defense of laid-off workers and the poor and turns it into an attack on the entire free-market system...
...As a result, foreign companies often can raise capital in their own countries at cheaper rates than their U.S...
...But his figures don't always add up...
...for each carrier not built, the aide says, a savings of $3.5 billion is more like it...
...According to a Democratic aide on the House Armed Services Committee, that's nonsense...
...We must fight back against runaway corporations," he says, proposing a vague "code of conduct" aimed at preventing U.S...
...has a weapons policy, not a security policy...
...The 130 countries of the Third World have different histories, cultures, and economic conditions," says his platform...
...In the final analysis, increased productivity is the key to a higher standard of living, and to achieving balance in the nation's trade statistics...
...Virtually any poor American can qualify for food stamps, as 19.4 million Americans did in 1987...
...GM doesn't have any plants in Korea, he says-though it owns part of A platform in search of a candidate Many a political pundit has noted that people generally vote their pocketbooks...
...Korea's Daewoo Corp.-and since 1979 it has invested more than $43 billion in its U.S...
...As for "slave" labor abroad, Jackson appears to mean South Korea, though the Koreans must be puzzled, since the per capita gross national product climbed from $142 in 1967 to $2,850 in 1987...
...And, come to think of it, Jackson's farm proposal has echoes of Mao too...
...Jackson never once says what U.S...
...action when the cause is a left-wing favorite...
...One is reminded of what Mao used to say about the virtue of his "barefoot doctors...
...It's also possible that he has even come to believe this stuff...
...He also deplores "American aid for waging war in El Salvador and Guatemala against their own people," which can only mean that he doesn't mind if Communist rebels topple the democratic governments in either country...
...Jesse Jackson has moderated his views...
...Jackson continues, on the stump, to stress his conservative themes of opposition to drugs and support for individual dignity...
...Perhaps Jackson really means North Korea...
...Jackson would cancel the MX and Midgetman missiles, the Stealth bomber, as well as the D-5 missile for Trident submarines...
...Nothing would stifle the economy-and turn "better times" into a mockery-faster than trade barriers and global economic warfare...
...So he proposes a five-year defense spending freeze that would gradually slash billions from the budget...
...In foreign policy, the Jackson program goes beyond "blame America first" to blame America only...
...effort to "militarize Costa Rica"--which is news to me-is deplored...
...weapons he does like...
...He claims, for example, that "the playing field should be evened so that companies like General Motors find it difficult to close eleven factories in one week in the U.S., costing 30,000 American jobs, and open up two new plants in South Korea...
...American journalists like to call his themes "populist," but it's doubtful most of his admirers on the stump in Sheboygan or Brooklyn know what's really behind the passion and the rhyme...
...NEVADA...
...Like many on the left, Jackson wants to spend less on defense so he can spend more on domestic programs...
...Clark Clifford, a Democratic party elder, emerged from a March breakfast with Jackson to say he detected a "new maturity...
...Their proposals for radical statism have become the fine-print of Jackson's stirring populism...
...He endorses the Gephardt-Harkin Family Farm Act that even liberal economist Paul Krugman has called "remarkably irresponsible...
...company's research expenses to domestic income, for purposes of the foreign tax credit...
...His position on nearly every social and economic issue is pure Great Society: regulate it, nationalize it, or at least throw money at it...
...Koreans also have the right to join labor unions and to strike (though the government has often intervened on behalf of management), and they just voted for a new president...
...So is there really a new Jesse...
...We must respect that right, confident that democracy and freedom are spreading in the world...
...His platform routinely deplores U.S...
...20 million [of the hungry] live in the world's most agriculturally abundant country-our own...
...The bill would impose production controls and licensing that would result in higher food prices for all Americans (so much for the poor) and fewer U.S...
...Japan spends only slightly more of its GNP for R&D than does the U.S., but, unlike Japan, much of America's R&D spending reflects its commitment to a strong defense...
...Current plans call for adding two carriers to our present force of fourteen...
...intervention" in the Third World, for example, but it's all too happy to endorse U.S...
...American productivity-output per hour-lagged badly in the 1970s and earlier in this decade...
...He'd double the education budget (now at $20 billion), though he doesn't say anything about accountability or standards or discipline...
...Take a zero-based look at all existing regulations, including environmental regulation...
...But then again, he says America's problem is that "we have guided missiles, but unguided minds...
...The existing tax credit for R&D is scheduled to expire at the end of 1988...
...Now, in the midst of the presidential campaign, we're listing some points that are often overlooked in all the speechmaking, but bear directly on America's economic health-a platform in search of a candidate, so to speak...
...So, he says, "industry should be made responsible for future cleanup costs as an incentive to stop polluting"--no sense waiting until a company inevitably breaks the law...
...Taxpayers would have to foot the bill for the mistakes of Jackson's social engineers...
...His platform calls South Africa "the Fourth Reich," but it has nothing at all to say about the Soviets in Afghanistan or General Jaruzelski's Poland...
...Tax it before...
...Jackson also proposes a bit of creative socialism that he calls a Na tional Investment Program...
...counterparts, and use the money for the new plant and equipment that translates into greater productivity...
...It's clear Jackson doesn't understand that global capitalism makes everybody richer...
...Some regulation is necessary, but it should also be cost-effective...
...The deficit poses a clear and present danger to every living American, and to future generations who will have to pay today's staggering debt...
...Between 1974 and 1987 government outlays rose from 19 percent of GNP to almost 23 percent...
...They necessarily will have different social and political experiments...
...They're supporting a man Paul A. Gigot writes a weekly column from Washington for the Wall Street Journal...
...And of course he is already helping to move the Democratic party further from the political center...
...The number's bogus," he says, "based on groundless assumptions...
...SARKES TARZIAN INC NOOG A TENNESSEE [,IF 'Z...
...who's become an authentic class warrior...
...At the same time, we should insist on fair trade-reciprocityamong all trading partners...
...The company did announce, in November 1986, that it would close eleven plants by 1990, but four of those plants remain open today...
...A decade ago he was the eloquent proponent of black responsibility and dignity ("down with dope, up with hope"), even of "black capitalism...
...So American industry is placed at a competitive disadvantage in world markets, and fewer jobs for Americans are created...
...Ideologically, the campaign soon assumed a left-social democratic tone, and at later instances, even became forthrightly antiimperialist and anti-corporate in content...
...His philosophy is summed up in his hallmark catch-phrase "economic violence...
...From "Jackson and the Rise of the Rainbow Coalition," in a 1985 issue of A the New Left Review...
...The `egocentric"proponent of Black Capitalism, in short, became one of the most left-wing national spokespersons of a na tional presidential campaign since the time of Eugene V Debs...
...There must be recognition of the fact that America's economy is part of a vast, interdependent global system...
...Make that selective moral outrage...
...Raise levies on consumption-the money people spend-rather than...
...to keep attracting foreign funds...
...To complement socialism abroad, Jackson would impose more of it Nonetheless, even self-determination sometimes has to take a back seat to Jackson's sense of moral outrage...
...Jackson saves his indignation for the West, especially for capitalism...
...The U.S...
...Second, greater public oversight minimizes unnecessary operations and treatment...
...The hard left, so long in the political wilderness, has found a formidable new champion...
...1988 Mobil Corporation THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1988 15 at home...
...An Economic Impact Statement should be required before any regulations are enacted...
...It's just that simple...
...Even including escort ships and airplaneswhich wouldn't be purchased in five years anyway-the total savings from two task forces would be less than $20 billion...
...His views reflect a far, even radical, left tradition that American voters have consistently repudiated, extending back through George McGovern, Henry Wallace, the Wobblies, and, yes, even Eugene Debs...
...El American journalists like to call Jesse's themes "populist," but it's doubtful most of his admirers on the stump in Sheboygan or Brooklyn know what's really behind the passion and the rhyme...
...More troubling, though, is what would happen when these "public'!--i.e., political and bureaucratic-investments inevitably went sour...
...ought to make unilateral concessions: "We must suspend deployment of new nuclear weapons-and challenge the Soviets to do the same...
...No such luck...
...But real per capita disposable income climbed 12.4 percent from 1980 to 1987...
...Jackson is no petty-bourgeois reformer, either...
...Jackson would end all US...
...Not merely many but "most" women...
...According to Jackson, Americans are victimized by "merger maniacs," "corporate barracuda," and "chemical warfare" from greedy business polluters...
...interests without going nuclear...
...Shun protectionism...
...High U.S...
...Encourage increased productivity in the private sector...
...We also favor the current proposal to permit the allocation of at least 67 percent of a U.S...
...They have the right to choose their own destinyto find their own ways to cope with poverty, illiteracy, and political representation...
...One way to boost productivity is through more research by the private sector...
...But a GM spokesman says, "We have no idea what he's talking about...
...By aiding the contras, says one position paper, "we do not confront communism, we affront the 400 million people of Latin America, for we represent hegemony not self-determination...
...Much of the borrowed money comes from abroad...
...He'd nationalize the healthcare system, insisting that this would actually save money...
...But "better times" is an acceptable euphemismand the platform we suggest will surely help bring them about...
...On defense policy, one Jackson position paper leads off with this note of cool reason: "The time has come where we either freeze nuclear weapons or burn the people and freeze the planet...
...But take a look at the essence of his program-especially at his economic and foreign policies-and Jackson looks more like a candidate of the British Labour party than a traditional American Democrat...
...First," his platform says, "comprehensive care emphasizes prevention-which means fewer illnesses...
...A cap on government spending as a percentage of GNP should be enacted to roll back this gradual rise, or at the very least keep it from climbing more...
...He of course believes in comparable worth and would impose a vast new regulatory regime for child care, gay rights---!'We support the rights of lesbians and gay men to child custody" -and so forth...
...He'd tax the rich simply because they're there...
...based on a Cold War view of the world," he says...
...Poverty stalks the streets of America on a scale unknown in a generation...
...On the stump, of course, Jackson tends to glide over many of these dire details and he sounds more optimistic about America, even uplifting...
...plants to become more competitive...
...Here's more from Jackson's Dickensian America: "Most women have fallen deeper into poverty and despair in the Reagan years...
...They tend to elect the candidates they believe capable of steering the nation toward better times-more jobs, a higher standard of living, and the achievement of both personal aspirations and national goals...
...And today it's still hard to believe that the teenagers and factory workers he excites in campaign appearances have anything in common with the alienated intellectuals from IPS...
...In any case, even Jimmy Carter wanted more than twelve carriers...
...The problem," he says, "is that the structure doesn't work...
...He also calls for a Third World Marshall Plan-presumably to be paid for by Western taxpayers...
...to be a global power, much less to act like one...
...from taxes on money earned, if the need for new revenues proves absolutely inescapable...
...It's so simple, in fact, that the U.S...
...That pension money-the retirement savings of millions of Americans-is currently invested in stocks and bonds, so at the very least the Jackson program would mean that much less money would be available for private investment...
...In the '60s, regulatory zeal cost the nation millions of dollars that could have gone into plant and equipment, but didn't...
...Such a statement should include an examination of international competitiveness...
...Furthermore, it wouldn't penalize American business, which is precisely what higher income taxes do...
...He naturally places great faith in arms talks, even endorsing a long-time Soviet proposal for "nuclear and chemical weaponsfree zones" in Europe...
...So his first order of business would be to raise taxes, restoring rates on "the rich" to 38.5 percent and corporate taxes to their level of the 1970s (close to 50 percent without deductions...
...Such a tax could be written to ease the burden on those least able to pay...
...INDIANA '`;N, INDIANA WAJI )%"'%7 WDIANA CORPORATE OFFICE 5v .i_'OOMINGTON, NDIANA 47402 H ;n, I< s 2 %201 dNi _ 16 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1988...
...He's only off by about 20 million...
...In place of Western capitalism, Jackson proposes a scheme for the international redistribution of wealth...
...He'd have the government tap into 10 percent of the nation's public pension funds, providing federal guarantees to invest some $60 billion "to finance small business loans, low-income housing, neighborhood revitalization and infrastructure investment...
...Whatever the truth, the likelihood is that Jackson's charisma and ability will cause many Americans to believe in his left-wing program...
...But a more disturbing question is whether he even believes in 14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1988 the Western values that have animated America's global role...
...A prime way to narrow the deficit is to curb government spending...
...It should be extended...
...In a nonpartisan spirit, and with profound respect, we urge that the next President: • Make it his top _pri rity to bring the budget deficit under control...
...multinationals from investing overseas...
...And Jackson himself has avoided any repeat campaign swings through Havana or Managua...
...The latter offers clear evidence that America is simply using more goods and services than it produces, importing the difference, and borrowing to pay the bill...
...He en dorses Third World debt write-offsno specific plan, just about any will do, he says...
...John Bode, the Department of Agriculture's assistant secretary of food and consumer services, says the 20 million figure probably came from a left-wing group known as the Physicians Task Force on Hunger in America...
...Sandinista hegemony doesn't rate a mention, but the U.S...
...weapons system...
...farm exports (so much for "economic nationalism...
...It reads like a Pravda caricature...
...He ignores, in other words, the entire debate of the last decade about economic incentives and the futility of using high tax rates to raise government revenue...
...Even Gorbachev is trying to get away from this kind of policy...
...With all that new tax revenue, Jackson would also send the govern ment on a spending spree worthy of the 1960s...
...He also opposes refurbishing the F-15 fighter, and he'd even cancel cruise missiles, which, when conventionally armed, could defend Europe and U.S...
...Jackson claims to dislike protectionism...
...He'd also support federal programs for recycling, mass-transit, "to transform how we produce power," to help the car makers "develop new engines," to rebuild and insulate homes to reduce energy consumption, and on and on...
...Gorbachev would approve, however, of Jackson's description of today's America...
...A consumption tax would also tap into the vast underground economy, and make taxpayers out of those who now escape the income tax...
...If we reduce our aircraft carrier task forces to the twelve that every president before Reagan found sufficient, we could save over $50 billion in the next five years," he says...
...Jackson would even prevent the "Third World elite" from investing their money in "First World" banks, a perfect way to ensure a huge new investment black market...
...He has struck a chord as a symbol of black progress and for his appeals on behalf of society's have-nots...
...In Jackson's worldview, in short, "selfdetermination" rates a higher priority than democracy or freedom...
...Perhaps only Jackson himself can explain why he has moved so sharply to the left, though one possibility is that, ever the astute politician, he understands that the left is where he could make his biggest impact on a leftward-moving Democratic party...
...This requires high real-interest rates in the U.S...
...Unfortunately, when a candidate mentions the word economics, eyes sometimes glaze over and a fearful epidemic of yawns may erupt...
...staple of 1988 political wisdom is that the Rev...
...Industry simply can't afford needless expense that brings minimal benefits, because such outlays act as a brake on productivity and make it more difficult to compete internationally...
...Borosage and Roger Wilkins, another IPS sage, play especially prominent roles in the Jackson campaign, writing speeches and often joining him on the stump...
...Certainly not if he's being judged by the details of his policy agenda...
...The budget deficit is inexorably linked to the trade deficit...
...Multinational banks and corporations have forged a new global order which has replaced unionized labor at home with slave labor abroad," he says...
...This is a tragedy, because, as the quote from the New Left Review that began this article points out, Jesse Jackson hasn't always had a left-wing agenda...
...Jackson adviser Ann Lewis keeps telling TV audiences he's just "a presidential candidate like any other...
...Clearly, Jackson doesn't want the U.S...
...support for the UNITA rebels fighting Cuban troops in Angola, but he endorses U.S...
Vol. 21 • June 1988 • No. 6
