Get a load of this: "Democrats reversed a decline in defense spending that began under President Bush . . . and provided the funding for a new generation of weapons."

We need Democrats for this?

The Pentagon's budget is at $300 billion a year. Lawrence Korb, a high-ranking Pentagon official in the Reagan Administration, says it can be cut down to $200 billion a year.

But not Al Gore. He brags about bloat.

And he's bound to keep padding it, because the platform is in favor of a limited nuclear missile defense system.

Also in the draft platform, the Democrats come out for "fast track" authority, which will enable whoever is President to railroad more trade agreements like NAFTA through Congress.

And that's a good thing?

The draft also has a plank in favor of the death penalty, and though it says that death penalty defendants should have access to DNA testing, it boasts that Clinton-Gore have expanded the list of crimes subject to the death penalty.

(By the way, Gore is pressing hard on the crime issue, demagoguing with his support for the Victims Rights Amendment, a foolish cluttering of the Constitution. But hey, if there's a low road, Gore will take it.)

On domestic economic issues, the platform calls for eliminating the national debt in 12 years, a plank that the Democrats appear to have stolen from Calvin Coolidge.

While the platform does contain some good ideas, like banning permanent scab labor, condemning racial profiling, supporting gays and lesbians and abortion rights, on many of the major issues of the day, the platform is one that George W. Bush could easily stand on.

Copyright © 2000 by The Progressive, Madison, WI

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