GORE WAVES WHITE FLAG IN CLASS WAR Final Edition

Don't take my word for it. Listen to Al Gore, who last week joined the bidding, not to say pandering, for the votes of the growing stock- owning class. The Vice President endorsed new tax breaks for IRA- style savings accounts. And he tacitly conceded the appeal of George W. Bush's Social...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe commercial appeal
Main Author Paul A. Gigot Reprinted with permission of The Wall Street Journal [copyright) 2000 Dow Jones & Company Inc. Paul A. Gigot is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Memphis, Tenn Gannett Media Corp 19.06.2000
Subjects
Bush, George W
Gore, Albert Jr
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Summary:Don't take my word for it. Listen to Al Gore, who last week joined the bidding, not to say pandering, for the votes of the growing stock- owning class. The Vice President endorsed new tax breaks for IRA- style savings accounts. And he tacitly conceded the appeal of George W. Bush's Social Security reform by proposing his own new "Social Security plus" accounts that could be invested in stocks and bonds. The tipping point came when the Gore assaults failed to move the polls. As this month's CNN-USA Today-Gallup survey showed, voters favor Bush's plan for personal retirement accounts by 59 percent to 31 percent. Among voters between the ages of 30 and 49, the margin is 2 to 1 for the Bush plan; for voters under 30, it's a remarkable 3 to 1. Which is why Gore listened for once to his New Democrat policy advisers and is now attempting his imitation-as-flattery comeback. By proposing new "Social Security plus" accounts, the Veep is trying to elbow in on the stock market allure of the Bush reform. He's also hoping to mute the philosophical contrast Bush wants to make between dynamic private sector and stodgy government-run pensions.
ISSN:0745-4856