Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Wed, Aug 19 1992 Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 04:20:00 EDT Message-ID: 08-19 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Aug. 19, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Wednesday morning in USA TODAY: Environment, Convention, Barbara Bush. TODAY'S DEBATE - ENVIRONMENT: USA TODAY'S OPINION: While Bush claims credit for the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, Dan Quayle's Council on Competitiveness is undoing some of the pollution rules it calls for. Bill Clinton ... has made no environmental speeches since the convention. ... Environmentalism could be a winning platform if it were sold as ... an important component, not the enemy, of jobs and economic progress. ... Destroying the environment does not preserve jobs over the long term. ... Protecting the environment can create jobs. ... Ignoring the environment will put the U.S. behind in the global marketplace. ... Japan is leading the way in new energy-saving technologies. The U.S. will have to scramble or lose out on jobs and profits from similar products. ... Clinton should speak up, and Bush should muzzle the Competitiveness Council. That way, the environment just might win the election for one of them. OTHER VIEW: PATRICK COX, associate policy analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute: The Council on Competitiveness. ... represents a continuation of the effort begun by the Carter administration to come to grips with the in-built governmental predilection for over-regulating. Regulation is, in fact, a form of non-monetary taxation. ... Some regulations and their associated costs make sense. Many, however, do not. ... Nevertheless, one-track regulators routinely destroy jobs because of relatively trivial occupational and environmental risks. The regulatory process is almost completely lacking in checks and balances. The Council on Competitiveness is a much-needed means for forcing regulators to consider the risks they create as well as those they prevent. Those who care about this country should not allow it to become a political pawn. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON CONVENTIONS: ELIDA, Ohio, Charlie Powell, 50, custodian: I don't think they accomplish much. I don't follow them at all. I feel like they're more of a waste of time than anything. I don't think they accomplish anything as far as the election is concerned. They don't change my vote at all. ST. LOUIS, Mo., Marsha Leonatti, 42, vice president, employment and education: They give both parties the opportunity to kick off their campaigns and citizens the opportunity to learn about the candidates. If we are to be a strong democracy, it is important that the electorate be informed, and the political conventions do a good job of helping us. SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., J.J. Binkley, 56, Realtor: They don't have any effect as to whom I vote for and don't change my opinions - just give me an opportunity to see the people, what they stand for, how they're portrayed. They're a show. They let the political parties showcase themselves along with their candidates. DECATUR, Ga., Mike Glenn, 36, basketball analyst: Conventions are very worthwhile. The viewers get a sense of what the parties and their nominees' philosophies are and their plans for leading the country. Conventions force nominees to get in touch with what the people are expecting and force them to do their homework. WASHINGTON, D.C., Sandra Yartin DePoy, 33, government affairs director: I'm a big proponent of the convention process. It gives people around the country - mainstream USA citizens who might not otherwise have an opportunity to be a part of the process - the chance to hear the candidates, learn about the issues and feel a part of the political process. TOPIC - BARBARA BUSH: Richard Ben Cramer, author of "What It Takes" was interviewed by USA TODAY. WHAT IS BARBARA BUSH REALLY LIKE? Barbara Bush is a woman who minces no words. She will let you know where you stand with her, in language that sometimes belies her chosen image as America's grandmom. If she thinks you're trying to use her to get to (or get at) George Bush, she can take your head off. If she thinks you're after her children, there'll be nothing left of you but a belt buckle and some fillings from your teeth. ... But she is also a woman of discipline who will say no more than she means to say. WILL MRS. BUSH ATTACK THE CLINTONS? Some will hope for Barbara Bush to attack the Clintons on "family values," contrasting her own history - guiding five children to adulthood, helping her husband's career at every turn - to Hillary Clinton's derisive dismissal of Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man." They'll be disappointed, too. Barbara Bush is likely to attack no one. WILL BARBARA BUSH MAKE HER OWN POLITICAL CASE? She is certain to leave not a chink of light between her own positions and those of the man she married 47 years ago. Anyone who thinks her standing in political polls could lure her into making a political case is ignoring her deep sense of propriety - and her toughness. "People like me," she says, "because I don't have to take a position on anything." WHAT DOES MRS. BUSH SAY ABOUT HER HUSBAND? She calls him the strongest, smartest, wisest, kindest and best man she ever met. ... She is the only one who might offer us a view of the weight he has borne, the work that kept him up at night, the care that lined his face. She is the one person I would ask to tell us why he wants to run again. Issues & Debate Editor: Susan M. Andrews. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM