The Telegraph
Health and Human Services Commissioner, Terry Morton, endorses Gramm's 
presidency
By KEVIN LANDRIGAN, Telegraph Staff, 01/16/96

	MANCHESTER -- GOP presidential frontrunner Bob Dole would be against at 
least half the Contract with America if he weren't seeking the White House, primary rival and fellow Sen. Phil Gramm charged Monday.
  Gramm accepted the endorsement of one of the state's toughest 
budget-cutters and said he remained worried Dole would cut a bad, balanced budget deal with Democratic President Bill Clinton.
  Health and Human Services Commissioner Terry Morton endorsed Gramm's 
candidacy, insisting Gramm is the only one capable of keeping the campaign vow to balance the budget during his first four-year term or to retire.
  "I've had an opportunity to look at all the candidates and it's my 
belief that nobody has the experience, the intestinal fortitude that 
Senator Gramm has", said Morton, former budget director under ex-GOP Gov. 
and White House Chiefof Staff John Sununu.
  Gramm said Dole's backing of the GOP House Contract is politically 
timed.
  "Bob Dole as a defender of the Contract with America is a relatively new 
phenomenon that is born of the presidential campaign", Gramm said. 
  "If Bob Dole were not running for president, then he wouldn't be for 
one-half of the Contract with America."
  With four weeks to go before the New Hampshire primary, Gramm insisted 
he can catapult over three others and truly challenge Dole in the first-primary state.
  Gramm continued his attack on the 17-percent, flat-tax plan of GOP rival 
and second-ranked candidate Steve Forbes.
  The Forbes tax would only apply to earned income, and therefore would 
exempt those who inherit wealth or have investment income.
  Gramm will offer a 16-percent flat tax that would include earned and 
unearned income.
  "I think Steve Forbes plan is unfair and it would disrupt the 
economy", Gramm said.
  Unlike Forbes, Gramm would also retain deductions on home mortgages and 
charitable giving.
  Gramm said last Saturday's debate in Des Moines, Iowa, gave Forbes a 
taste of the tough rebuke to his ideas that lies ahead.
  "If you are going to run for president, you have to be willing to stand 
up and defend your positions", Gramm said. "There is a point where 
you can't hide behind your TV ads."
  Gramm's economic plan will include a sinking fund to eventually wipe 
out the nation[SO]s $3 trillion debt, a commission to root out unneeded regulations and deep budget cuts to balance the ledger.
  As for Martin Luther King's holiday, Gramm said New Hampshire should 
retain its right to keep Civil Rights Day and not a holiday solely for 
the slain civil rights leader. 
  Gramm backed the federal holiday but also preferred that it be a Saturday commemoration and not another unpaid day off for federal workers.
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The Telegraph			The daily newspaper of Nashua and
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