THE'PRESroENCY
Students ponder presidential picks
By Kelly Johnson
Senior Editor
Bill Clinton promises to protect education
and entitlement programs, while balancing the
budget. Bob Dole pledges a 15-percent across
the-board tax cut and a stronger economy. In
seven days, the American public will elect the
last president of the 20th century.
Many people say the decision is as impor
tant as any made in America this century. Yet
the main issue of the 1996 presidential election
“is not crime, the economy, or even character,
but sheer crashing boredom among the elector
ate,” The Economist said.
But this is no time to be bored with politics,
says Chad Pekron, chairman of the UNL Col
lege Republicans. He says students should be
concerned enough about their futures to get to
the polls.
“Vote. What happens in 1996 will effect the
rest of our lives,” Pekron said. “Now is the best
time to become involved in politics.”
Mamey Monson, president of UNL Demo
crats, agreed.
“Students aren’t going to vote because they
don’t think they have time,” Monson said. But
“an education doesn’t seem complete” if stu
dents don’t become active in the world outside
of university life, she said.
Tricia Bruning, executive director of the state
Democratic Party, said Clinton’s education poli
cies should make him popular with college stu
dents.
Education s expensive, out u s a great in
vestment,” Burning said. “Clinton acknowledges
that.”
Education funding is a top priority of the
Democrats, Monson said. And as a student and
future educator, she says her vote will go to
Clinton.
“What Clinton has to offer is what the Demo
cratic Party has to offer,” Monson said. She said
she couldn’t understand how students could
i “side with the Republican Party, who’s cutting
their federal aid and student loans.”
Some students have already thought about
voting. Nick Hohman, a freshman business ma
jor, is waiting for his absentee ballot to arrive
from Omaha. He knows how he’ll vote when it
arrives.
“I’m voting Republican because I don’t like
Bill Clinton,” Hohman said. “I’m more of a Re
publican supporter than a Bob Dole supporter.”
Another student says she’ll support Dole
because of his stand on abortion.
“I’m going to yote for Dole,” said Lisa
Schulte, a sophomore journalism major from
Lincoln. “The main reason is because he’s pro
life.”
Bob Dole
Daughter. Robin, from
Kan.. 1949;
PoMical Experience: US. Houae, 1977-85; U.S. Senate, 1985-93; vice
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president, lw^prwwi.
1
Her friend, Melissa Zierke, a junior second
ary education major, said Dole would get her
vote, too. But she said she thought the Republi
can ticket would lose.
“I think Clinton will win,” Zierke said. “This
campaign’s based on economics more than any
thing else.’”
Schulte and Zierke both said they thought
their friends would vote.
“We want to vote because it’s our first op
portunity,” Zierke said. “We all just turned 19.”
Student voting is important, echoed Pam
Thompson, executive director of the state Re
publican Party.
“Politics and who leads this country and gov
ernment affects everyone,” Thompson said.
But making an informed decision at the polls
takes some work, she said.
“I’d encourage people to take five minutes a
day and look hard at the issues and what con
cems them and then compare that to the candi
dates,” Thompson said. “It’s easy to assume
everything’s going to be OK. This election is
more important than that. You have to exercise
your right to vote and encourage others to vote.”
Thompson said a vote for Bob Dole would
be in a student’s best interest.
“He’s interested in their futures,” she said.
“Young college graduates shouldn’t be discour
aged bv high taxes.
“They should be able to put money back in
their pockets,” she said. “Bob Dole says/It’s
your money, not the government’s money.’”
Bruiting said she thinks Clinton is the best
person to lead the government during the next
four years.
Bruning said people should vote for Clinton
“to protect education, Medicare, Social Secu
rity and to make sure the economy keeps grow
* _ M
mg.
Clinton: Yes
Dole : No
Clinton: Yes, but would reform
Dole: No, but has backed in the past
Clinton: Yes, but would reform
Dole: No, but has backed in the past
Clinton: No
Dote: Yes
Clinton: Federal
control; advocates "workfare”
Dote: States would control. Would freeze
grants for five years at 1994 levels
Clinton: Increased taxes on wealthy;
tax cuts in latest proposal
Dote: 15% across the board tax cut
Dote: Favors
Clinton: No
Pole: Yes_
Source: AP
Federal Reserve may influence economy most
From The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bill Clinton,
the first president in decades to face
the voters with no recession on his
record, is working overtime to claim
credit. Bob Dole counters that the
economy isn’t all that great and that
Republicans are responsible for any
success.
The most significant figure could
well be a man whose name appears on
no ballot and is hardly mentioned on
the campaign trail—Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan.
“If you want to talk about anybody
who helped the economy, it is
Greenspan,” says Charles Schultz, an
Greenspan given credit for robust election-year economy
economist who served under Democrat
Jimmy Carter. “The good record on
inflation and the economy is the credit
of the Federal Reserve.”
A Republican economist, Michael
Boskin, scoffs at Clinton’s claim.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but it is a
huge stretch,” he says. “No serious
economist would give him very much
credit for tKe cyclical upturn of the
economy.”
An economy measured in the tril
lions of dollars is pushed and pulled
by a variety of forces, but economists
agree that by far the biggest govern
mental influence comes from the Fed
eral Reserve through its control over
interest rates.
The Fed has far more say on such
matters as economic growth, recessions
and inflation than any president.
Just as Clinton had the benefit of
coming into office as a fledgling re
covery was beginning to take hold, his
predecessor, George Bush, was a vic
tim of bad timing.
For much of Bush’s term, the Fed
was raising interest rates in an effort to
slow the economy and keep inflation
from getting out of hand. As often hap
pens when the Fed is tightening credit,
the economy did more than slow—it
went into an actual recession in July
1990. __
lhe downturn was over by March
of 1991. But the initial upturn was so
anemic that voters in 1992 were still
feeling anxious, and Clinton attacked
Bush’s economic record as the worst
since Herbert Hoover.
This year the economy gained a
second wind that has led to surprisingly
robust growth, pushing unemployment
to a seven-year low. \
“The best thing that presidents can
do is get out of the way. There are lots
of way s they can louse things up,” said
David Wyss, chief financial economist
at DRI-McGraw Hill.
Clinton is praised for not interfer
ing in 1994 when the Fed raised inter
est rates. Indeed, Democrat Clinton has
forged a remarkable partnership with
Greenspan, himself a Republican. Over
the howls of liberal Democrats, Clinton
appointed Greenspan to a third term.
Dole has good things to say about
Greenspan, too. He and other Repub
licans say any political credit for the
economic revival belongs not to
Clinton but to Bush, who was presi
dent when the recovery began, and to
the Republican Congress.
“Presidents like to take credit for
an economy that is doing well, but if
you look more closely, you usually find
a competent Fed chairman somewhere
in the wings,” New York economist
David Jones said.