That the governing elite is stuck. It is paralyzed. It cant take the necessary corrective action to restore vitality to this country. The level of despair and suffering and injustice has no historic president precedent in the history of our nation. Folks in washington are acting as though there are some problems out there, but it is pretty much business as usual. Two interpretations of 1992. One is there are some problems that ought to be corrected. But things are pretty much on track. There is another view, there is something profoundly wrong with what is going on in the politics and governing processes of this nation. I take the second view. I believe the social fabric is unraveling. That the central state is aggregating to itself authority that would shock and dismay our founders. That Civil Liberties are being eroded. That injustice is the experience of millions and millions of americans in a way that is absolutely intolerable. When i see millions of kids who do not have a mother and a father, tens of millions in poverty and despair. When you seek exile of a whole generation of americans be it a black, latino, white, red, asian, it is not right. The coincidence of political corruption, mass cynicism at the process, failing competitiveness, a loss of decent high paying jobs is combining to unravel the fabric that everyone in this room takes for granted. Theonly way we can restore upward sense and buoyancy of this country is to make a challenge to the governing elite and to overcome their resistance. Knowledge the criticism and questions that you make for me because i have been in politics. I would say by record i have always been for political reform for protecting the underdog, for , environmental protection, for innovation and creativity of all kinds. My record is clear. Mi perfect person . No. I am not a saint. I have been in politics for 20 years. I grew up with a politician at the dinner table every night. Labor leaders, jewish leaders, San Francisco irish politics. That is my upbringing. But i also have a moral commitment to justice. Market ast the dictator. That is a community that cares and works for people. This community is not working for all the people that live here. The gap is growing. The chattering class is doing very well. The chattering class, the people at this table, the media, the lawyers, the politicians and the rest of the people who earn their living by their wits, by their mouth, by their pencils. There is another group of people who dont have a job or are losing it because they make cars and people down in mexico are willing to do it for a fraction of what they will. That is the challenge. I came here in 1976 and i went through harlem and i saw bombed out buildings and it shocked me. Carter went there and made certain statements and nothing happened. Ive been doing this campaign. It is still there. Down in congress they are not even willing to vote the Mayors Program of 28 billion to assist the cities of this country. They are not even willing to fully fund headstart. The money is there. Over 100 billion for s ls. They came up with a pay raise of 40 million. They came up with a money for the gulf war. Economists are saying spend more. There is no theoretical or political reason for not having a renaissance and revitalization right here at home. The only thing that prevents it is the gridlock, the inability of the present system to function and respond to this mortal challenge. That is what my campaign is meant to achieve and to respond to. So i am here offering people a clear choice. Yes, it ismate a protest but more than that. It is a choice to restore vitality to a decrepit political process that is discouraging half the American People from participating and my invitation is joined together and in coalition we can restore this , country to its original commitment to opportunity and upward growth in each generation. That is my message. We appreciate that. Who wants to start off . If everybody who asks questions could identify themselves, that would make it a lot easier for the governor to respond directly. City hall bureau chief. Why dont we start with the tax question . Arent you asking new yorkers to commit political suicide with your tax . Are you going to restore deductibility for state and local taxes . Mr. Brown i will save new yorkers more money in my tax proposal than any deductibility offers them. Deductibility will be more than compensated for by the savings on the personal tax that ive proposed in substitution of the mess that exists in the revenue sharing and commitments of the cities that my campaign commits itself to. This is not an isolated program. This is part of an integrated strategy to rebuild the cities and industries of this country. In addition to that, the only study of my tax proposal by the citizens for tax justice is logically flawed. All we are saying here is that you should clear out. What we want here is simplicity and fairness. I am representing those who have lost all advocacy and im not here to in any way disadvantage those that are suffering the most. I want fairness and simplicity. To the extent we have to improve and make it better, we will. David, did you want to complete the question . I dont get it really. New hampshire has no state or local taxes. New york has among the highest in the nation. If there is no deductibility, we are still going to be paying those taxes, right . Mr. Brown but you will save more by broadening the base and lowering the rate. New hampshire still wont have local and state taxes and we will be paying them and wont be able to deduct them. [applause] minute. N wait a what youre saying here is you need a federal tax. That makes you feel better if you have a high federal tax against which to deduct. I would feel a lot better instead of paying it 100 , sure. ,mr. Brown i just want to capture this here. If you have 100 and you can somehow offset it with estate tax, what is the difference if you just pay the estate tax and you have a federal tax to offset against it . You are happy because there is a burden on you that you can lighten by the payment of your state taxes. If the burden is not there in the first place you are in the same position. What i am saying is the reduction of federal tax that im proposing will put you in a better position than you are today with a larger federal tax. The local and state tax will be there no matter what. Mr. Brown but if you are lowering your federal taxes will save enough money that you will come out ahead when you net out the loss and deductibility. The increased savings. The other point of this, youre getting hung up on very small issues. This country is losing its capacity to save and invest. Every Economist Says we need to find the savings and investment. They say that the business tax im proposing will be the most efficient collector of revenue. And the way i will design it it , will be progressive. If we have to cover the first 15,000 in income we can do that with a very slight adjustment of the tax, so that if you make only you wont have to pay any 15,000 tax. A large collector of revenue. The flat tax is my own idea and i combined them because for most people, the payroll tax is the most regressive. You cannot deduct state tax against your Social Security and medicare tax and for most of the people in the world that is the biggest tax burden. It is only the high income people that get the advantages you are talking about. For the person making 25,000, the payroll tax is the big not that he has to cover. That he has to cover. Im offering a rent deduction for the first time. A deduction for charity, for mortgage interest and moreover this is a concept that is open to improvement. We can make studies available to you whereas if you move up by a very small amount you can have enough money to rebate to low income people making 15,000 or less and cover them from any burden that they might incur. Joe, what did you want to ask . Joe nicholson, medical science editor. I am going back to a question that governor clinton talked about. We had an extraordinary coincidence in the newsroom yesterday. Fred dickers, my colleague on my right, leach did separate each did separate interviews with two people who did not know each other. Both were men of stature and High Integrity and both told similar stories. I interviewed kurt wolf, news director of channel 11 and a host on channel 31 and 13 at times. He told me he had seen you take a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette at a private party some years ago. Fred dickers source said the same thing. Mr. Wolf did a taperecorded interview which i have here. My question would be, can you tell us, have you ever tried smoking a marijuana cigarette . Mr. Brown no. That is the answer. Why do you think that . Mr. Brown show it to me. Who is the individual . This is kurt wolf. He answered the question. He has to hear it. Mr. Brown i dont know that individual. If you can identify him more. You say you have never taken a puff of marijuana cigarette in your life . He answered the question. Mr. Brown i dont recognize that name. If i had more elaboration i might. I wanted to go back to the meeting we just came from with Jewish Community relations council. The other people wont know that during that meeting there was an interruption by someone who basically screamed that you had betrayed the Jewish Community by taking Jesse Jackson as your running mate, and there was a lot of backandforth between that. I would like to ask you having had a chance to think about what happened there, what does that meeting tell us and you think it was a mistake to have chosen reverend jackson as your running mate . Mr. Brown no, it is not a mistake and i hope it is not too late to heal the divisions and animosity between the black and the white community. The Jewish Community and the black community. We are a country that in certain respects is unrivaled unraveling. I consider a very profound crisis. I am running to create the stability and justice that will allow america to be what its forbearers intended. Because of the feeling that jackson is antisemitic. I do not believe he is. I have known him for 12 years. Rift betweend a the black and Jewish Community that you spoke of earlier . Mr. Brown i believe it is the opportunity. I believe the blacks among other groups in society are seeing their youth destroyed. The highest cause of death among black kids under four is aids. You spoke of a particular rift. There are people who are advocating antisemitism in the black community and you make it sound like it is merely a matter of poverty. That poverty generates antisocial behior, when we know many people who are poor are not antisocial. You sound like an apologist at times for antisocial behavior saying it is not the people ,s fault. Mr. Brown keeping this country in the failed condition. The country is the cannot also. Mr. Brown do not give me that blame america stuff the republicans use at their convention. People are not responsible for their own behavior . Is that it . You not response before your own behavior . Mr. Brown i believe in accordance with the tradition i was brought up at the age of seven we reach the age of reason and are capable of sinful behavior. I very much believe in personal responsibility. I also understand as a student of history and someone was going on around the world that if you go to a poor nation like india and the punjabi you find the violence because of cast and poverty. That is exactly the problems we are facing in this country. You walk in these communities. Ive stayed at a homeless shelter in the last two weeks where there were women and their kids living in broom closets. This is america and these people feel alienated. You bet they do. Are they better . You bet they are. Im had committed to this country to make it strong and harmonious. That will never happen on the path we are going on. I was trying to ask a specific i do not want to debate with you. I think he is raising a really good question. I was trying to ask a specific question. You said there was particular rift between the black and Jewish Community. Mr. Brown and the black and the korean community. And i wondered what you thought was the cause of the particular rift between the black and Jewish Community. Why black resentment would why black resentment would focus itself on jews. You acknowledge there is a phenomenon. Mr. Brown this is in these poor countries where people start fighting each other. Northern ireland, the protestants and catholics kill each other. In sri lanka, they kill each other. Anytime you have people who are insecuretressed and they look for a scapegoat and they find someone who is on the outgroup who has a different , language a different skin color, a different religious tradition and they identify that as the source of their problems. It has nothing to do with if this person is jewish or catholic or that person is a mexicanamerican. It is the human nature of having a solidarity with ones own group and then attributing evil to the outside group. That is being exacerbated in this country. That is the truth of the matter. It is not a particular characteristic of one group over another. It is the normal business. The level of despair is out there. I have sat on Radio Stations. I was on a black Radio Station in chicago and they asked, do you support a congressman, and i said, of course not and they looked at me like, what, you dont . I saw the gap in interpretation. That is what really concerns me and i think the answer is not to , excuse antisocial behavior. I am barked upon an anticrime program and a prison Building Program second to none. We doubled the number people convicted of felonies from 18,000 to 19,000. My record on crime is tough. But i also like knowledge that acknowledge that you need a community where everyone has an opportunity. When you see mothers with no husband and kids living in a broom closet it is a formula for , explosion and that is happening not to just a few but to millions. They see on the one hand the affluence and of the other hand there utterly destroyed condition the spread of aids, the lack of jobs. The disempowerment of black manhood, it is explosive. My anticrime program is full employment and a living wage. That will do it. That will still mean there are people who are criminals who will do terrible things and they should be punished. You and evil. G end evil. My believe in original sin and human nature as a constant. I do believe social conditions exacerbate things. A level of murder in this community was 300 now it is Something Like 2000 a year. I believe it is social conditions and the priority which bush and the congress are still talking about is not acknowledged the extent of the alienation. What happened today i could have , told you this would happen two months ago and i knew this would happen. I knew it was going to be a division. But my campaign is about truth. I am going to tell the truth no matter what happens because i , think this country is at risk unless somebody has the guts to stand up and say the emperor has no clothes. This concept of a living family wage, you mentioned it several times. To what extent is it different from the welfare system which provide a living family wage . Are you for expanding the welfare system to make sure it is more of a Family Living wage . Mr. Brown im an advocate for having a president in Political Party it that every american has the right to life, liberty, pursuit of their own happiness, which requires a level of economic security. How we attain that . By reinvesting in this country, cutting the military budget, and converting our best research and technology and investment to a civilian revitalization and all the different ways we can do that, it can also take the form of earned income credit, direct payment. It can take the form of Public Service jobs, civilian conservation corps. A whole variety of ways that everybody can have an opportunity. All im saying is the reigning doctrine more money in welfare youre saying. The remedywelfare is to a social pathology that is continuing to exist. Sitting around in rooms like this and talk about things like their issues and people are dying and nobody is doing a darn thing about it. We have the money and the time to make this country available to all its citizens. Part of that is yeah, im against the fast track to mexico. I want a Modernization Program for american factories. I want a civilian conservation corps to enroll hundreds of thousands of young people. I want a Training Program but all the lists people give you are fine, but we have to make the commitment and acknowledgement that we are not living up to our social responsibility and that is killing the country and ultimately it will undermine everything we stand for as americans. I want to call on another member sitting around this boardroom. Jack newfield . Jack newfield. I heard what you said about blackjewish tensions coming out of despair and poverty but how do you explain the fact that the most vocal antisemites in the country are part of the elite . Congressman savage, minister farrakhan. A professor, jefferies. Isnt it something that has nothing to do with poverty and despair . Mr. Brown because they exploit it. Continueconditions with no hope, you are always going to be finding people who emerge to press the hot button. That is exactly what happens. What im saying is the answer to the rise of antisemitism, the rise of hate crimes, homophobic kinds of attacks is to create a , stability based on opportunity that we do not have available to all americans. Has your potential Vice President , Jesse Jackson, told you he regrets his involvement with Louis Farrakhan . Mr. Brown his comments he said about new york city that he said yesterday. Im talking about in the past. Mr. Brown he does not have an alliance as far as i know. I totally reject mr. Farrakhan and anything like that and i honestly believe if my Campaign Offers the opportunity to make the shift to domestic revitalization that in its absence will not occur and the erosion will continue. I do not see anything in clinton or bush that acknowledges the depth of despair. That is what people have to get through their head. The hatred and the animosity building up amongst people who see no way out is threatening the foundati