POLICY: Carter's Stand: Democratic Orthodoxy

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ENERGY. At this point, Carter has no comprehensive energy program, but offers a batch of specifics. If the Arab countries declare a new embargo, he says, he as President "would consider this an economic declaration of war and would respond quickly with a boycott against them"−presumably of food and industrial goods. Otherwise, he believes the U.S. should adopt strict conservation measures, including mandatory fuel-economy standards for cars and better insulation of homes, and shift as quickly as possible toward using more coal. Possibly, he thinks, the Government should offer some kind of inducement to industry to burn more of it.

On the hottest energy issue of the moment−the drive by many of his fellow Democrats to break up the big oil companies−Carter takes a cautious approach. He would "probably" split off gas-station chains, and possiby wholesale-distribution terminals as well, from the oil giants. He also is inclined to favor forcing oil companies to get out and stay out of other fuels, such as coal and uranium. But he would not divorce oil exploration, production, refining and transportation, as a bill now going to the Senate floor would do (see following story).

BUDGET. Despite his advocacy of higher spending at the outset of his presidency, Carter insists he could balance the budget by 1980. One reason is that tax collections would shoot up as the economy expanded. Also, Carter is counting on major cost savings from his much-touted plans to overhaul the federal bureaucracy. Long range, Carter's goal is to balance the budget "over the business cycle"−that is, produce surpluses in boom years large enough to offset the deficits incurred in years when the Government must pump out money to pep up the economy.

MONEY SUPPLY. Carter believes that the Federal Reserve has been too stingy in doling out money. To give himself and future Presidents more influence over the independent Fed, Carter proposes that each President be empowered to appoint a chairman who would serve a term that coincided with the President's own, Under present law, Fed chairmen are appointed for four years, but the term can overlap Administrations. The incumbent, Arthur Burns, was reappointed early in 1974 and would run the Fed through the first year of a Carter presidency.

MISCELLANEOUS. To get more housing built, Carter would have the Government subsidize mortgage interest rates lower than those now charged by private lenders. He would raise the wage base on which Social Security taxes are levied−they are now collected from the first $15,300 of a worker's income−but not the tax rate. Importantly, he opposes any loosening of antipollution laws, even to get more coal burned. In general, he sees no conflict between protecting the environment and promoting a rapid expansion of the economy−but if he did, he says, he would come down in favor of the environment every time.

These views are open to attack. Republicans are sure to charge that Carter gives too low a priority to holding down inflation−indeed, that his job program would set off price rises that his anti-inflation measures would be inadequate to contain. Pumping up Government spending immediately, and then swinging to a balanced budget by 1980, are two goals that, to put it mildly, will be exceedingly difficult to reconcile.