Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 1992 22:24:19 CDT
From: <U56503@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: ==> Clinton/Gore On Defense Conversion/Revitalize Economy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information in the public interest which does not imply that it
is the opinion of UIC.  Contact 75300.3115@compuserve.com for
further information.
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        CLINTON/GORE ON DEFENSE CONVERSION:
        REVITALIZING OUR COMMERCIAL ECONOMY



At the end of the second world war, more than 75
million Americans lost their jobs, but our nation
made the most of their skills and launched the
greatest economic boom the world has ever seen.
Now that the Cold War has been won, we cannot leave
those who won it out in the cold.

Today we have an historic opportunity.  The human
and physical resources we once dedicated to winning
the Cold War can now be rededicated to fulfilling
unmet domestic needs.

We can lead this country out of recession and get
our economy moving again.  Bill Clinton' and Al
Gore's National Economic Strategy will provide
incentives for businesses to create jobs and
improve American competitiveness; make a major
investment in our children's education and our
workers' retraining; and renew our commitment to
America's working families.


Put people first

*    Offer early retirement and a pro-rated pension
     for military personnel with 15 to 20 years of
     service to encourage voluntary down-sizing.

*    Encourage states to offer incentives like
     alternative certification programs for
     military personnel who retire to take jobs in
     critical professions like education, health or
     law enforcement.  Military retirement credits
     should be increased by one year for each year
     of such employment.

*    Put 100,000 new police officers on the streets
     by creating a National Police Corps that
     offers veterans and active military personnel
     a chance to become law enforcement officers
     here at home.

*    Train military personnel for critical civilian
     professions through an expansion of the
     Montgomery G.I. Bill: the new program would
     enable them to take a one-year educational
     leave of absence with pay before officially
     beginning their retirement.

*    Create an education fund administered by the
     National Science Foundation to provide grants
     for professionals formerly engaged in defense
     work to master the latest developments in
     critical civilian technology fields such as
     biotechnology, synthetic materials, renewable
     energy resources and  environmental clean-up.

Target defense cuts to infrastructure investments

*    Transportation: renovate our country's roads,
     bridges and railroads; create more American
     jobs by developing a high-speed rail network
     to link our major cities and commercial hubs;
     invest in "smart" highway technology to expand
     the capacity, speed and efficiency of our
     major roadways; and develop high-tech
     short-haul aircraft.

*    Create a national information network to link
     every home, business, lab, classroom and
     library by the year 2015; put public records,
     databases, libraries and educational materials
     on line for public use to expand access to all
     kinds of information.

*    Expand federal efforts to develop
     environmental technology and create the
     world's most advanced systems to recycle,
     treat toxic waste, modernize city sewage
     systems and clean our air and water; and
     develop new, clean energy sources.

Conduct a national defense jobs inventory

*    Redeploy the people, skills and technologies
     which made our defense industry second-to-none
     during the Cold War to the commercial
     infrastructure industries we'll need to
     compete in a global economy.  A national
     defense jobs inventory will match current
     skills and facilities capabilities with those
     which will be required for these different
     projects.

Emphasize civilian technology

*    Increase investment in civilian high-tech
     applied R&D and manufacturing technologies as
     the need for military R&D diminishes to create
     millions of high-wage jobs and smooth our
     transition from a defense-based to a
     commercial economy.

*    Reinvest every dollar that would otherwise be
     cut from defense R&D and technology industries
     into federal civilian R&D and generic
     technology programs.

*    Create a civilian advanced technology agency
     modeled after the successful Defense Advanced
     Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the
     Department of Defense's research and
     development arm.  The new agency would sponsor
     civilian R&D and technology projects, create
     new jobs for scientists, technicians and
     engineers, and develop and produce
     manufacturing expertise for state-of-the-art
     technologies and innovative new products.

*    Enact a permanent extension of the R&D tax
     credit to stimulate private investment in
     civilian R&D.

Aid small businesses

*    Make special conversion loans and grants
     available to small business defense
     contractors through the Small Business
     Administration (SBA).

*    Increase funding for the Export-Import Bank,
     targeted to assist small businesses in
     developing export markets.

*    Create a small business Technical Extension
     Service through the SBA, based on the
     successful Agriculture Extension and
     Minnesota's proven Project Outreach Program,
     to give small businesses easy access to
     technical expertise.

*    Offer a 50 percent tax exclusion to small
     businesses and entrepreneurs who take risks by
     making long-term investments in new ventures.

*    Provide a targeted investment tax credit to
     encourage investment in new plants and
     productive equipment here at home so that we
     can convert innovative ideas into new products
     and compete in the global economy.

Assist hard-hit communities

*    Develop new regulations to enable portions of
     bases which have been cleaned up
     environmentally to be transferred to
     commercial functions prior to the clean-up of
     the entire base, as long as the transfer is
     consistent with public safety.

*    Facilitate the transfer of military land to
     surrounding communities by selling facilities
     at slightly lower-than-market rates, as long
     as the purchaser has demonstrated that the
     intended long-term use will provide
     significant employment opportunities to the
     community that would not otherwise exist
     should the sale not go through.  Purchasers
     buying land through this program who do not
     carry through with their intended plan will
     face financial penalties.

Financing conversion

*    Every dollar we save by down-sizing our armed
     forces and defense industries will be
     reinvested during our transition to a
     post-Cold War economy.  Under the National
     Economic Strategy, we will pay for these and
     other investments and reduce the national
     deficit by cutting spending, closing corporate
     tax loopholes and requiring the very wealthy
     to pay their fair share of taxes.

The Record

*    Senator Gore contributed to a Democratic task
     force on defense conversion, which led to the
     Senate Armed Services Committee's recent
     authorization of $1.2 billion for efforts to
     address the needs of communities, businesses,
     and individuals affected by the defense
     drawdown.

*    Worked to secure increased funding for the
     Defense Department's computer and networking
     technology programs, which will yeild
     beneficial results for America's computer
     industry.

*    As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee,
     Senator Gore helped secure funding for the
     Commerce Department's National Institute of
     Standards and Technology to help small defense
     manufacturers convert to civilian production
     so they can successfully compete in civilian
     markets.

*    Worked with his Senate colleagues to introduce
     a package of legislation which forms a
     forward-looking national technology policy.
     This initiative will help America develop and
     commercialize critical technologies, and
     sharpen our ability to take an invention and
     turn it into an affordable and usable product.

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