Published Friday, April 6, 2001
Sen. Clinton challenges tax-cut plan
BY KRISSAH WILLIAMS
ASNE Reporter
An hour before President George W. Bush took center stage in the J.W. Marriott’s Grand Ballroom, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., told newspaper editors that the president’s proposed tax cuts would strangle the federal government.
In her 30-minute speech, Sen. Clinton talked primarily about the federal budget, which the Senate is scheduled to vote on Friday.
Sen. Clinton called President Bush’s proposed plan “risky at best; dead wrong at worst,” and an “invasion of the surplus snatchers.”
She said the cuts will cost “a staggering $2.6 trillion” not the $1.6 trillion President Bush’s projections suggest.
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| Hillary Clinton speaking at the ASNE convention. |
“The Bush administration is not just attempting to reverse the last eight years of progress,” said Sen. Clinton, who serves on the budget committee, “he’s attempting to reverse the last 60 years.”
She likened the plan to buying a lottery ticket and then buying a yacht. “Projections are guesses, not promises,” she said.
Sen. Clinton suggested that the U.S. budget surplus should be used for investments in education, for defense spending and paying down the national debt.
“A budget is not just about numbers, projections and line items. It sets our priorities. It is, at bottom, about who we are as Americans,” she said. “A tax cut is not a budget, no matter how big it is. You can’t make up in size what you lack in vision.”
Sen. Clinton also addressed some international issues, saying she supports the president’s stance on the negotiations with China for the immediate return of U.S. military personnel being held there after a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane on Sunday.
Introduced by Deborah Howell, editor and Washington bureau chief of Newhouse News Service, as a former-first lady, best-selling author and a woman who can’t have a bad hair day without it ending up in The Washington Post, Sen. Clinton popped off witty comments about the budget and the media during her speech.
Sen. Clinton said she respects the role of newspaper editors. As an example, she cited Benjamin Franklin, whom she referred to as the nation’s first newspaper editor.
“Not surprisingly, Franklin was from time to time criticized by those who said his salacious stories were untrue,” Sen. Clinton said. “That is what my press secretaries say to me everyday of my life” when I complain about news coverage.”
Following her speech, Sen. Clinton took questions from editors for about 20 minutes before shaking hands, signing autographs and taking pictures.
Editors asked the senator a wide range of questions.
Narda Zacchino, associate editor of the Los Angeles Times, asked why Sen. Clinton voted in favor of the recent “bankruptcy” bill since it may make it harder for women who survive on alimony and child support to declare bankruptcy. The bill must still pass a full vote of the Senate.
“I was against it at first,” Sen. Clinton said.
She added that she worked closely with the bill’s sponsors to make changes that she supported.
Wanda Lloyd, executive director of the Freedom Forum’s Institute for Newsroom Diversity, called Sen. Clinton a role model for young women before asking her if she planned to become a role model for women as U.S. president.
Sen. Clinton said the answer was no – at least not right away.
“I’m going to be a senator for New York for my full term,” Sen. Clinton said. “I hope someday that barrier will be broken.”
As to whether the book she plans to write on her life during her husband’s tenure as president will be a “tell-all” – Sen. Clinton said she hasn’t started writing the book, but it will explain her thoughts and experiences during the ups and downs of her years in the White House.
In response to a question posed by Rafael Santos, editor of El Tiempo in Bogota, Colombia, on whether she agreed with the movie “Traffic” – which asserts that America is losing the war on drugs – Sen. Clinton said “we’re not winning. We haven’t stopped demand or supply. We need to do more on the demand side.”
She recommended more treatment programs for drug addicts.
Jack Moseley, editor of Times Record in Fort Smith, Ark., whose paper covered the senator while she was the state’s first lady, said he was interested in how she made the transition from life in Arkansas to New York.
“New York and Arkansas are somewhat different places, somewhat more than in location,” she said. “It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before,” Sen. Clinton said of the time she spent in Arkansas.
When Sen. Clinton was a law professor at a local university, she called information to get the home phone number of a student who had been absent from her class.
Before she could even call the student, the operator told her with some assuredness, “he’s not home.” The audience roared with laughter.
“I have a fondness and love and respect for Arkansas,” Sen. Clinton said. “It’s been a wonderful journey.”
