POLITICS: Front and Center for George McGovern

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DEFENSE. To help pay for the jobs and other social benefits that he proposes, McGovern would cut the Pentagon budget by $32 billion over three years. His detailed 56-page plan earns good marks for thoroughness even from its critics. He would drop many new weapon systems, including the Safeguard ABM and the B-l bomber. He would cut the armed forces and civilian Pentagon employees by nearly 30% —chopping U.S. forces in Europe from 300,000 to 130,000. At the Pentagon, the comptroller's office reviewed McGovern's proposals with deep interest, and noted that he failed to include in his alternate defense budget some $10 billion in essential "consumable supplies"—chiefly fuels and lubricants. More broadly, the Brookings Institution's Leslie Gelb, project director of the Pentagon papers, says that he agrees with 95% of the McGovern plan but has two objections: 1) "The program does not come to grips with the practical and political problems of putting that many people out of work," and 2) allies might well be disconcerted by such drastic changes. Again, further explanations are in order.

"A vast military colossus," says McGovern, "now capable of blowing up the world a hundred times over, is devouring two out of three of our tax dollars." Hyperbole aside, the tax mathematics are very nearly right. Federal revenues for the current fiscal year are estimated at $197 billion. Subtract $54 billion in Social Security receipts and $3 billion for the highway and other trust funds—none of which is income tax revenue—and the total is $140 billion. Add to the defense budget of $78 billion the outlay for veterans' benefits ($11 billion) and 80% of the interest on the national debt ($16 billion); both, arguably, are the continuing cost of past wars. That puts the defense total slightly over $ 100 billion, which is more than McGovern's two-thirds of $140 billion. McGovern is not alone in his calculations of the total cost of defense; Arthur Burns, Chairman of the Fed and no fan of McGovern's, has made a similar analysis (TIME, July 13, 1970).

AMNESTY. McGovern has urged that after the Viet Nam War is over, amnesty be granted to those "who, on the grounds of conscience, have refused to participate in the Viet Nam tragedy." He would not include deserters.

EDUCATION. He wants to end use of the property tax to finance schools; he would increase federal aid to elementary and secondary schools fivefold, to $15 billion.

BUSING. The McGovern position is more liberal than most, and he has avoided serious campaigning in Florida and will probably avoid it in Michigan, where the issue is paramount. He believes that busing may be used to achieve racial balance as long as it harms neither children's health nor the educational system. "Without busing as a tool," he says, "desegregation will probably stop dead in its tracks."

HEALTH CARE. McGovern favors "a federally funded, guaranteed system of comprehensive health insurance for all Americans."