Notable Quotables - 07/05/1993
Differing Spins on the Same Poll
"He's sounding
tougher. He's acting friendlier to the press. And the polls show his long
downward slide is ending."
- Chris Wallace citing a new ABC News-Washington Post poll
on Clinton, June 29 Nightline.
Disapproval of Clinton's
Performance Reaches new high in Post-ABC Poll
- Headline of Washington Post story on the same poll, next morning.
Those Pesky Anti-Tax Republicans
"Doesn't Clinton
deserve some credit here for beginning to tackle the problem of getting people
to pay taxes? I mean, for 12 years in this country, it's become patriotic not
to pay taxes, to avoid paying taxes. And Clinton at least is trying to turn
that around. Why isn't he getting more credit for that?"
- Washington Post columnist and chief foreign correspondent Jim
Hoagland on Washington Week in Review, June 18.
"The Republicans
argue that it's three dollars in tax increases for one dollar in spending
cuts, but I think it's really more 50-50. That's an important thing to get out
to the American public."
- U.S. News & World Report Assistant Managing Editor Gloria
Borger's response to Hoagland, same show.
"Republicans...have
a curious way of calculating the spending- cuts-to-tax-increase ratio: they
consider loophole closing - like Clinton's proposal to reduce the
deductibility of business meals from 80 to 50 percent - a tax increase; thus,
Bob Dole can say that the Clinton plan is 3-to-1 taxes to cuts."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Joe Klein, June 28.
Clinton's Budget Cheerleaders
"Bill Clinton
really is trying to lasso the moon. I think we have to give him credit for
that. This guy is trying to lasso the moon on health care, the economy. Now
when you try to lasso the moon, and you catch it, that's a big deal. You've
just caught the man in the moon. But if you fall short, you just fell into a
black hole."
- New York Times reporter Thomas Friedman, June 20 Meet the
Press.
"A lot of the debt
that was racked up in the '80s has been paid off, especially by individuals
and companies, and the government is making a real effort, for the first time
in more than a decade, to do the same, to reduce the deficit."
- NBC economics reporter Mike Jensen, June 11 Today.
"I'm no expert on
taxes...but the BTU tax sounded like a pretty good idea to me until it was
shot through of holes."
- NPR reporter Nina Totenberg on Inside Washington, June 12.
"The bill is now
being called, appropriately, a deficit reduction package, instead of a tax
plan which you've tried to make it seem like. It is the first serious assault
on the deficit, and the public is largely behind it, and behind this
President's success."
- Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift, June 27 McLaughlin Group.
Putting the Government in Charge Will Save on Paperwork?
"Unlike Mrs.
Clinton's plan, under single-payer, employers would no longer have to provide
coverage for their employees. There would be no need for private insurance
companies, a change studies show could save between 35 and 70 billion dollars
a year in paperwork and other administrative costs."
- ABC reporter Bob Zelnick, June 23 World News Tonight.
Sad Lack of Self-Control
"At alarming rates,
America is losing its young people to gunfire and violence. Due in great part
to the sad lack of gun control, murder is the second leading cause of teenage
death in this country."
- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel, June 28.
Uncompromising Centrism?
"Besides his iron
will, the key to Clinton's success was his uncompromising centrism....Clinton
routinely preached an activist politics - but nonetheless rooted firmly in
the center. In tone and content he often appeared as an endangered species -
a moderate Republican."
- Time Senior Political Correspondent Michael Kramer in the Time
Annual, 1992: The Year in Review.
"I think this
nominee is close to Bill Clinton's view of the world...anybody who expected a
raving liberal from Bill Clinton doesn't know who Bill Clinton is or
understand his background."
- U.S. News & World Report Associate Editor Steven Roberts on
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, June 15 Fox Morning News.
Another Media Reagan Rant
"No question it
[the gap between rich and poor] widened in the last 12 years, huh?...Okay, we
did all that pouring government money into these problems. You know, we did it
during the sixties. We did it during the seventies. With Reagan it stopped, no
question there...Oh no, you're not pushing trickle-down...It didn't work. The
numbers are there. It didn't trickle down to anybody."
- Former CBS reporter Jane Wallace to Cal Thomas while co-hosting the CNBC
special Achieving the American Dream, June 14.
Helen Thomas on Presidents
"In Plains, I saw Jimmy Carter as he really is - a nice, decent man. In Washington, he was never quite connected, even to his own party. But today, in terms of compassionate contribution to society, he certainly has proven to be our best past President..."
"All of us who
covered the Reagans agreed that President Reagan was personable and charming.
But I'm not so certain he was nice. It's hard for me to think of anyone as
nice when I hear him say `The homeless are homeless because they want to be
homeless.' To my mind, a President should care about all people, and he
didn't, which is why I will always feel Reagan lacked soul."
- UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas in the July Good Housekeeping.
Aren't You Out of the Mainstream?
"Haley Barbour,
would you agree with Bobbie Kilberg...that the Republican Party needs to do
some soul searching, and that Michael Farris, who was chosen as the Republican
nominee for Lieutenant Governor, is just out of the political mainstream?...
Can the Republicans move ahead with candidates like this around the country?
Do you agree he's out of the mainstream?...Robert Novak, do the Republicans
have difficulty in some parts of the country with these candidates who are
coming from, whether you call it the Christian right, the far right of the
party, who do represent, in the eyes of some, out of the mainstream?"
- CNN anchor Judy Woodruff's interview on Virginia's Republican convention,
June 21 Inside Politics.
Amen
"We are told that
the deficit will be reduced by these higher taxes because they will be
accompanied by cuts in spending. But somehow, the record shows - this is not
opinion - the record shows that in modern times, whenever government income
has risen, spending has risen even more. If all the spending cuts promised in
the last 20 years were actually delivered, if all the promised cuts were
actually made, maybe next April 15 the IRS would be sending us money."
- David Brinkley closing This Week, June 20.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Andrew Gabron, Kristin Johnson, Steve Kaminski, Mark Rogers, Bill Thompson;
Media Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager;
- David Felton, David Muska, Robert Vane; Interns
