Richard Lugar: WMUR Debate
Sen. DICK LUGAR (R-IN), Presidential Candidate: Tonight on this beautiful night in New Hampshire, I speak to the highest idealism of all Americans. Something must happen for American families to break out of incomes that have remained the same on average for 20 years. I advocate the end of the federal income tax, capital gains taxes, the state taxes, gift taxes and the end of the Internal Revenue Service - all of it - as we substitute a state-administered national sales tax and watch savings, investment, wages and job creation efforts soar. Something must happen for black and white Americans to begin to talk to each other about making American cities healthy again by reducing unemployment, crime, welfare, drug abuse and depressing blight. As mayor of Indianapolis, I led a successful uniting of inner city and suburbs, an honest and continuing conversation about racial relations and attitudes and strong economic and cultural growth. And I'm prepared to do the same for all Americans. Something must happen for the president to command trust and confidence, that when the president speaks about moral issues in this country or about commitments necessary for American security in world peace abroad, he is respected. I have been a straight shooter, a truth teller, tested at the local, state, federal and international levels four decades. The something that will happen in my election is specific and predictable. The concluding years of the 20th century will be the best years our country has ever witnessed. CARL CAMERON: Thank you very much, Senator Lugar. I'm surprised to not hear you focus as much tonight in your opening statement as you have on the campaign trail for your consumption tax, the value added tax. Could you tell us a little bit about why that has become an important part of your campaign? Sen. DICK LUGAR: It's important because it is the way in which American economic growth will occur. Savings, now at 2-1/2 percent of our economy, will soar to seven percent when we end the income taxes, root and branch, IRS, all of it, and move to a state-collected sales tax on retail sales and consumption with, of course, revenues that will have to be exempted, specifically foods, clothing, shelter, medicine, so that it's no more regressive than the current one we have but that does provide, with a 17 percent tax rate, Americans a take-home pay - it's theirs - can save it, invest it, keep it, save and invest it again, pass it on to your loved ones without estate planning, without estate taxes. The family farm, the family business could be passed on. CARL CAMERON: As an economic tool, what does that do to ensure job security and in addition perhaps raise wages that many in America feel have not risen with the standard of living? Sen. DICK LUGAR: Well, wages are not going to increase with the current income tax system. Wages increase when productivity increases, and productivity happens when people have savings and investment. The scheme I'm suggesting increases the investment pool from 2-1\2 percent savings in our economy to seven. That's a huge new pool for investment. That means new jobs, investment as Americans try to make money and keep the money they make. CARL CAMERON: Since a flat tax seems at least to be more popular with the other candidates and in many polls with many of the voters, if a flat tax were to come to your desk as president, would you sign it? Sen. DICK LUGAR: Yes, it would be an improvement, but clearly the flat tax keeps the Internal Revenue Service. You may have a postcard and just a few figures, but you've got auditors. You've got to have figures that back those up. Americans spend five billion hours now preparing for income taxes, all dead time - $200 billion lost by American industry. It's a national waste and a national scandal with $127 billion not collected by IRS. CARL CAMERON: Across the country, Misters Dole, Gramm, a number of your colleagues in Congress have a certain amount of name recognition because of their roles in Washington, and yet, at least at this point, you seem to have some trouble in relative obscurity. What need you do in the coming months to get your message to more people? Sen. DICK LUGAR: I need to visit with you, and I need to visit with the listeners of CNN and with every journalist in this country who values a strong presidential candidacy as a good thing for America. I'm here, I've got good ideas, and I'm just waiting to be asked questions. CARL CAMERON: Well, what about those ideas would qualify you to more than your peers to take on Bill Clinton next year? Sen. DICK LUGAR: Because I have a decisive idea on how to change the economy, scrap the IRS and the income tax. I have experience in foreign affairs. I'm chairman of the Agriculture Committee and have been writing a farm bill. I've been manufacturing food machinery in my career. I'm a lay minister in the Methodist Church. I've been a mayor of a large city. I know of no candidate has that gamut of experience at the state, local, international levels. CARL CAMERON: Have we put too much emphasis on family values and character in this race? Sen. DICK LUGAR: No, very important, extremely important, and I would just simply say we have got to focus this campaign upon how we treat each other as human beings - what kind of parents we're going to be, what kind of husbands and wives we're going to be, very fundamental. CARL CAMERON: Do you see amongst your colleagues a treatment on the campaign trail that perhaps is not as exemplary as you'd like? You- You have kept your rhetoric to a minimum when it comes to your opponents. Sen. DICK LUGAR: Well, I think each one of us chooses our own style, but I've found my opponents to be very worthy people, and I echo the sentiments that were expressed by Congressman Dornan earlier on. CARL CAMERON: Well, we'll applaud you for taking the high road, Senator, and urge you to go on now to closing statements in about a minute and a half. Sen. DICK LUGAR: Thank you very much, Carl. Pope John Paul said last week that the tears of this century have prepared us for the springtime of the next century. Perhaps the pope anticipated that the presidential election we're in in 1996 already would be a defining moment for our country in which we strongly rejected a competition to be the most negative and mean-spirited and renounce the cynical idea that politics is primarily half truths and entertainment. Instead, we shall stop looking for immigrant, racial and gender scapegoats and to choose the best constructive program to organize our world for peace and our own security. We should choose to stimulate the best talents in each one of us to create strong incentives for risk, innovation, job creation and exciting new levels of education and communication. We should choose to talk without reticence about better marriages, better parenting and grandparenting, the end of racism and prejudice and the need for a thoughtful national leadership that listens to all of us and speaks to the strengths of our unity. I look forward to being that president who helps each American find new personal achievement and dignity. CARL CAMERON: Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, thank you very much.