Reaching straight for the support of middle-class parents, President Clinton on Tuesday proposed a $1,500 tax credit that essentially would open the doors of community college to almost everyone.
In a commencement address at Princeton University, where the annual tuition is $21,000, Clinton tried to stake out the political high ground on an issue of widespread public import.
Along with the president’s standing proposal for a $10,000 tax deduction for college tuition, the tax-credit plan made a powerfully attractive package for parents wondering how they can afford higher education bills.
But neither tax-relief plan has a snowball’s chance of making it through Congress as long as Republicans control the House and Senate, a reality underlined by immediate hostile reactions from GOP presidential hopeful Bob Dole, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other key Republicans.
“I think he knows that is not going anywhere,” said Sen. Pete Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who chairs the Senate Budget Committee. “More of the same.”
Instead, the Clinton education package stands as a Democratic political broadside in the war for the White House and an attempt by Clinton to grab some of the tax-break thunder while Dole prepares his own tax-cut plan.
Clinton and Dole have been dancing around one another on campaign issues for a few weeks, like boxers testing for openings and seeking advantage.
Clinton’s entry Tuesday added taxes to a list that already included abortion policy, welfare and crime.
For the president, the goal has been to keep himself well within the hot zone of polling results that give him a wide advantage over Dole. For Dole, the challenge has been to find the cracks and soft spots he can use to win support.
True to the nature of this contest, Dole’s response to Clinton’s tax proposal Tuesday was rapid and reminiscent of the Republican Party’s favorite modern-era president, Ronald Reagan.
“There he goes again,” Dole said, borrowing the putdown Reagan used against Jimmy Carter in a 1980 TV debate. “Who knows what taxes he will increase if he should be re-elected.”
“In every election year, he’s for tax cuts,” said Gingrich.
Clinton said the goal was to make at least 14 years of schooling “as universal as the first 12 are today.” Students would have to maintain a “B” average and not get caught using marijuana or other controlled substances.
“It will open the doors of college opportunity to every American, regardless of their ability to pay.” Clinton said. “Education at the typical community college will now be free.”
The Clinton plan would provide a tax credit equal to or more than the tuition paid by about two-thirds of all students attending community colleges in 33 states, according to the White House.
The president said the other 17 states should find some way to lower community college tuition to $1,500 so that high school graduates could have two free years of school. The average community college tuition nationwide is $1,200.
The credit also could be applied to tuition for the first two years at a four-year college. Families could take either the credit or a $10,000 tax deduction for tuition, a plan Clinton proposed a year ago but that has been blocked by the Republican-controlled Congress.
Anticipating a harsh Republican response, Clinton’s staff already had picked the taxes and fees they would like to increase to pay for his tax-credit plan, which would cost some $7.9 billion over six years. The tax-deduction plan has a $35 billion price tag over the same period.
The White House also released a Dole statement from February in which the senator said he thought Clinton’s idea for tax credits for two-year college students “was pretty good.”
Clinton would pay for the education program by squeezing additional revenue from current export sales taxes, which aides say would produce $3.5 billion; charging a $16 airport passenger departure fee for international flights, which would produce $2.3 billion; and by auctioning off radio frequencies, for an additional $2.1 billion.
The tax and fee ideas have a yard-sale feel to them, one sign of how sensitive everyone is about tax revenues in this presidential election year.
White House adviser Gene Sperling said the choices were the “least unattractive” options on what he called “a pretty ugly list.”
More Top Picks Best Ergonomic Office Chairs For Home Offices
Clinton’s plan put him in the center, at least for a few days, of what promises to be an extended debate over tax policies as the presidential campaign proceeds.
Both Clinton and Dole have pledged to find a way to balance the federal budget, but the Republicans have become more aggressive about the issue in the last few days.
In Illinois, for example, they are running television ads that track Clinton’s changeable record on the issue of balanced budgets.
At the same time, Dole and his staff are working hard to put together their own tax-relief plan. It reportedly will include a call for a 15 percent across-the-board tax cut, although there is concern about what might be cut on the spending side to help pay for it.
Dole already has called for a $500 tax credit for certain charitable contributions, a proposal that would cost $15 billion to $20 billion.
Clinton’s plan for a direct tax credit is aimed at solving a problem presented by the $10,000 college tuition deduction. Such deductions usually favor higher-income families, while tax credits can help anyone who pays taxes because they are sliced right off the tax bill.
Not surprisingly, the proposal got high marks immediately from those who stand to gain the most financially–people who run colleges.
“In Chicago alone, it would certainly open the door to literally thousands of young and not-so-young people who would otherwise not pursue the option of a college degree,” said Ronald Temple, chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago.
A red flag came from Robert Reischauer, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, who called the proposal “bad tax policy and bad economic policy. Other than that, it’s a good idea.”
Reischauer said it would be better to spend the money improving troubled elementary and high schools, where educational problems are most severe.