From the Wall Street Journal article I just posted.
"Richard Cooper of Winnetka, Ill., a 67-year-old investor and former chairman of Weight Watchers Inc., hasn't just switched parties -- he is helping Sen. Clinton's campaign. An early Reaganite, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Illinois governor in 1976. He says he has been alienated in recent years by Republican policies across the board. A leader of the international "Responsibility to Protect" project for global action against humanitarian crises, he opposes Bush foreign policies. The father of a daughter with lupus, he wants funding for stem-cell research, which antiabortion Republicans oppose.
As for fiscal policy, Mr. Cooper contends that "Democrats are the new conservatives." Republicans "are still talking about tax cuts. It was one thing when Ronald Reagan was doing it and the top [income-tax] rate was about 80%. Now tax rates are reasonable. So what if I have to pay 5% more in taxes?"
"...Mr. Clinton said in an interview that he often meets disillusioned Republicans in his travels. "They say, 'You know, I didn't vote for you, and I didn't like the fact that you raised taxes on upper-income people and corporations, but I did better when you were there. You produced a better economy. You guys knew what you were doing.'"
Such comments could be dismissed as self-serving, but Mr. Greenspan offers a similar view in his new autobiography, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World." Mr. Greenspan, who was President Ford's chief economic adviser and Mr. Reagan's choice for the Fed, praises Mr. Clinton for fighting for deficit reduction and free trade, over the opposition of fellow Democrats and unions. "A consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth became a hallmark of his presidency," Mr. Greenspan writes. In recent years, his own party's leaders, he writes, "seemed readily inclined to loosen the federal purse strings any time it might help add a few more seats to the Republican majority." |
