bernard: ann compton for gov. dukakis. ann: governor, today they may call them role models, but they used to be called heroes, the kind of public figure who could inspire a whole generation, someone who was larger than life. my question is not, who your heroes were. my question instead is, who are the heroes who are there in american life today? who are the ones who you would point out to young americans as figures who should inspire this country? gov. dukakis: well, i think when i think of heroes, i think back, not presently, ann. but there are many people who i admire in this country today. some of them are in public life in the senate, the congress. some of my fellow governors who are real heroes to me. i think of those young athletes who represented us at the olympics were tremendously impressive. we were proud of them. we felt strongly about them, and they did so well by us. i can think of doctors and scientists, jonas salk who for example discovered a vaccine which cured one of the most dread diseases we ever had. an

it sure did. [ applause ] >> ann compton for the vice president. >> thank you. mr. vice president, yes, we read your lips, no new taxes. despite that same pledge from president reagan after income tax rates were cut in each of the last five years some federal taxes have gone up on social security, cigarettes, liquor, even long distance telephone calls. that's money straight out of people's wallets. isn't the phrase no new taxes misleading the voters? >> no, because i pledged to that and, yes, some taxes have gone up. and the main point is taxes have been cut and yet income is up to the federal government by 25% in the last three years. so what i want to do is keep this expansion going. i don't want to kill it off by a tax increase. more americans at work today than at any time in the history of this country and greater percentage of the work force. and the way you kill expansions is to raise taxes and i don't want to do that and i won't do that. and what i have proposed is something much better. and it's going to take discipline of the executive branch. it's going t

it will be asked by ann. ann? ann compton: mr. perot, you talked a minute ago about rebuilding the job base. but is it true what governor clinton just said, that that means that unemployment will increase, that it will slow the economy? and how would you specifically use the powers of the presidency to get more people back into good jobs immediately? mr. perot: step one, the american people send me up there, the day after election, i will get with the congressional -- we won't even wait till inauguration, and i'll ask the president to help and i'll ask his staff to help me. and we will start putting together teams to put together -- to take all the plans that exist and do something with them. please understand. there are great plans lying all over washington nobody ever executes. it's like having a blueprint for a house you never built. you don't have anywhere to sleep. now, our challenge is to take these things, do something with them. step one, we want to put america back to work, clean up the small business problem, have one ta

vice president, ann compton has a question for you. >> mister vice president, as many as 100 officials in this administration have left the government under an ethical cloud. some have been indicted, some convicted, many of the cases have involved undue influence once they are outside of government. if you become president, will you lock that revolving door that has allowed some men and women in the government to come back and lobby the very departments they once managed? >> yeah, and i'll apply to congress to. i'll do both. i'll do both. because i think, you see, i'm one who i get kidded by being in a little old-fashioned on these things, but i do believe in public service. i believe that public services honorable. i don't think anybody has a call on people in their administrations going astray. his chief education adviser is in jail. he's in jail because he betrayed the public trust. the head of education. and yet this man, the governor, equated the president to a rotting fish. he said that official routes from the head down as he was going after ed miss. look, we need the highest po

hitchcock's remarks, ann compton who you all know will join dr. hitchcock for a conversation on this great biography and the 34th president of the united states. ann is a pioneer of journalism in america. she was the first woman to cover the white house for network television and was on the air for 41 years with abc news. her longevity and her impact are inparalleled. ann's career at abc news span seven presidents of the united states, ten presidential campaigns. she anchored from the white house, from capitol hill, and presidential travel that took her to all 50 states and six continents. and ann, and this is a very significant this is a very significant part of american history and white house history, ann was actually with president george w. bush on september 11, 2001 and was the only broadcast reporter that was allowed to remain on air force one. as you remember, the president was not allowed to return to washington and was kept away during those hours following the chaotic terrorist attack on our country. she was on the air force one on beha

they are john mashek of the boston globe, ann compton of abc news, and sander vanocur, a freelance journalist. we will follow a format agreed to by representatives of the clinton and bush campaigns. that agreement contains no restrictions on the content or subject matter of the questions. each candidate will have up to two minutes for a closing statement. the order of those, as well as the questioning, was determined by a drawing. the first question goes to mr. perot. he will have two minutes to answer, to be followed by rebuttals of one minute each from governor clinton and then president bush. gentlemen, good evening. the first topic tonight is what separates each of you from the other. mr. perot, what do you believe tonight is the single most important separating issue of this campaign? >> i think the principal that separates me is that 5.5 million people came together on their own and put me on the ballot. i was not put on the ballot by either of the two parties. i was not put on the ballot by any pac money, by any foreign lobbyist money, by any special interest money. this is a movement

. >> governor clinton, ann compton has brought up medicare. i remember in 1965, when wilbur mills of arkansas, the chairman of ways and means was pushing it through the congress, the charge against it was it's socialized medicine. >> mr. bush that he hmade that >> where i first met him. the second point, though, is that it is now skyrocketing out of control. people want it. we say it's going bonkers. is not the oregon plan applied to medicaid rationing the proper way to go, even though the federal government last august ruled that violated the americans with disabilities act of 1990? >> well, i thought the oregon plan should at least have been allowed to be tried because at least the people in oregon were trying to do something. but let me go back to the main point, sandy. mr. bush is trying to run against lyndon johnson and jimmy carter and everybody in the world but me in this race. i have proposed a managed competition plan for health care. i will say again, you cannot control health care costs, simply by cutting medicare. look what's happe

my colleagues on the panel are ann compton of abc news; margaret warner of newsweek magazine; and andrea mitchell of nbc news. the candidates are vice president george bush, the republican nominee; and governor michael dukakis, the democratic

i'm anne-marie green. have a great day.