Former Vice President Quayle Visits Warsaw

The 2000 race for the White House ran through Warsaw Thursday when former Vice President Dan Quayle met with approximately 100 county Republicans to spread his campaign message and to collect nearly $100,000 in contributions to his presidential war chest.

Quayle, in an exclusive interview with the Times-Union, said he is excited about his chances of emerging victorious from the large field vying for the Republican nomination and is eager to re-engage the nation - and national media - as the top man and not as the running mate.

"The campaign is looking very good. We're very well organized in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Arizona. As soon as I win a few early primaries, and I'm convinced I will, then the rest of the field is going to have to catch me," Quayle said. "The reason I'm going to do well is because I have a clear message - smaller, more efficient government, dramatic tax cuts, stronger families and reinvesting in national defense."

He said while the national economy is strong, that strength is not as deep as it could or should be. A key issue in his campaign will be to spread the prosperity enjoyed by the most powerful and wealthy to all American families. To do that, he is pushing for a major reduction in federal taxes, allowing families to keep more of what they earn to better their own lives.

"Take the tax cuts, for example. I'm going to call it a Workers' Benefit Program. It will slash the tax rate 30 percent across the board. There will be three tiers, starting at 10 percent up to 28 percent," he said. "And there will be only three or four deductions - I call them mortgage and charitable.

"We're going to make it simpler, we're going to make it easier to understand, and we're going to get rid of that special interest crowd in Washington that lobbies for more and more special breaks every year," he added. "This is going to be a tax code for the ordinary American. It's a major plank in my approach to grow this economy even more than it's growing now."

Quayle said his plan will not endanger the projected budget surpluses predicted for the next 10 to 15 years, because while cutting taxes, he would also decrease the size of government, denying Washington politicians the opportunity of spending more and making government more efficient and responsive to the American people.

"The spending caps need to be maintained, but I do not buy into the idea that Washington politicians are capable of saving the surplus for 30 years - they aren't capable of saving anything for 30 seconds. It's simply more gimmick and coming up with excuses for not cutting taxes," he said. "The middle class is getting clobbered. Everyone is paying too much in taxes. It may not be registering high on the public opinion polls, but it's registering high with the ordinary people. They know they're working harder and not getting ahead. Two have to work today for what one used to be able to do."

To reduce the size of the federal government, another of Quayle's campaign planks includes consolidation of several current federal agencies that are redundant, such as the Department of Education and the Department of Labor.

"We have 14 cabinet posts now. Let's see if we can reduce it to 9 or 10. For example, you can take the Department of Education and the Department of Labor and put then in the Department of Health and Human Services. They all go together. And, by doing that, and having that consolidation, you can save the taxpayer millions, perhaps billions of dollars," he said. "They do this in corporate America all the time. You have mergers, acquisitions and downsizing. Why should the federal government be exempt? This is an efficient way to do it, and will have tremendous savings to the taxpayer if I can get this through to the taxpayer, and I think that I can."

But before Quayle can implement his plans, he must first win his party's nomination - a long shot now, if national polls are to be believed. Quayle is running a distant third in most polls, behind early front-runners Texas Gov. George W. Bush and former Secretary of Transportation and chairman of the American Red Cross, Elizabeth Dole.

"We're clearly in third place according to the polls, but who's the front runner? The front runner will be determined after the Iowa caucuses," Quayle said. "I know what I have to do, and I'm going to win. I make it a comparison to my congressional race in 1976, when I ran against an extremely popular congressman - Ed Roush - and beat him in the year that Jimmy Carter won.

"Then I ran against Birch Bayh, who beat Homer Capehart, Bill Ruckelshaus and Dick Lugar. People asked how I was going to beat him. I said then, 'Just watch me,'" he added. "And now, they're saying I have a tough hill to climb here, with a lot of competition out there. I say yes, but I know what to do. I'm the most prepared, I have the most experience, I'm the most qualified to be president. I'm going to get the nomination and then I'm going to beat Al Gore."

Quayle isn't daunted by the scorn and derision he's received from the political pundits and comedians in the national media, either. He attributes the negative image fostered about him to the fact that as vice president he was in a supportive, secondary role rather than in one of leadership.

"I'm going to go right to them and re-engage the national media. Sure, there are a few snide remarks out there - the Jay Lenos or the David Lettermans. But, you know what? They don't pick on dead people. They know we're extremely viable, that we have an excellent chance to win this thing," he said.

"Also, it's much different running for president than vice president. When you're running for president, it's your campaign, it's your agenda it's your staff - you're in charge.

"When you're running for vice president, you get up in the morning and say, 'What do I do to help the president? What does he want me to do, how does he want me to answer this question, how does he want me to operate today?'" he added. "Every vice president has unique challenges. It's not a stature-enhancing office by any stretch of the imagination, but it's an important office to gain tremendous experience. No one can compare to my experience in foreign or domestic policy, and I've run in two national campaigns. That's going to prove to be very important when this campaign gets under way."