Word: gephardts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Like an American businessman trying to sell widgets in Japan, Richard Gephardt knows about the frustrations of unequal competition. After all, the little known Missouri Congressman is trying to take on Gary Hart, the Sony of Democratic politics. But Gephardt thinks he has found the lever to open up the 1988 political market: the $170 billion trade deficit and America's declining competitiveness in world commerce...
Last week Gephardt was waging a trade war on two fronts. In Congress, he was pressing for passage of the Gephardt amendment, which would add protectionist teeth to the pending trade bill by mandating quotas or tariffs if a rival nation sustained a large trade surplus with the U.S. and refused to eliminate unfair practices. Campaigning in Iowa, he became the first Democratic contender to challenge Hart aggressively on a major issue. Somewhat unfairly, Gephardt linked Hart with Ronald Reagan: "Frankly, I'm disturbed that the front runner in our party echoes the President and offers nothing new on trade...
...Gephardt's early attack on Hart's free-trade views reflects a changed political environment, prompted by growing fears over the Japanese economic threat. This time around, presidential candidates may feel compelled to prove their moxie on trade. "It is clear that people do feel there is not a fair, level playing field and that they want something done about it," says Pollster Paul Maslin, who has ties to the Hart campaign. The political problem for all candidates is to develop remedies that are simple enough to be understandable, tough enough to be credible, yet permissive enough to satisfy...
...could emerge as the salient issue, the one that helps sort out the crowded field, especially given Iowa's distressed farm economy. The difference is that second-tier candidates are all vying for the support of organized labor, which is unflinching in its protectionist fervor. That is why Gephardt stands to gain from the trade fight in Congress. Labor is unlikely to forget that Hart strongly opposed an earlier version of the Gephardt amendment when he was in the Senate. His detailed proposals on trade, which range from modifications in the antitrust laws to a new international accord on exchange...
Trade is likely to be important in a primary process with many candidates and few voters. Gephardt has ready managed to provoke a long-distance debate with Hart that leaves most of the other Democratic hopefuls in the shadows. It will be up to the voters to sort out the parochial jingoism and the political jingles...