QUESTIONS FOR PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL GEORGE W. BUSH

To: Honorable George W. Bush, the Governor's Office, Austin, Texas:

Welcome to the campaign trail. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, where
you will be campaigning for the first time starting today, have shown
a lot of interest in your presidential ambitions. Polls indicate that
many have a positive impression of your tenure as governor of Texas,
and you are fortunate that as you set out to win your party's 2000
nomination you already have a large base of support among Republican
elected officials.

But, frankly, there is much voters outside of Texas do not know about
your thinking on issues that will face the next president and about
your personal life. Here are 10 questions you need to answer as your
campaign begins:

Was the effort to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo worth the estimated
$1.8 billion to $3 billion cost of the involvement of U.S. military
forces? If the answer is yes, why would you have intervened in the
Balkans when your father did not? Should the United States also become
militarily involved in other nations where the same problem exists?

Speaking of the military, you served in the Texas Air National Guard
from 1968-1973, the peak of the fighting in Vietnam. Why didn't you
follow the example your father set in World War II and enlist in an
active duty unit?

You recently signed a pledge not to raise individual or corporate
taxes. And you have promised to reserve Social Security surpluses for
retiree benefits. This may placate special-interest groups, but aren't
you making promises that would tie your hands as president? And don't
you remember all the trouble your father got into as president after
his "Read my lips, no new taxes" campaign pledge in 1988?

Speaking of Social Security, many Republicans and some Democrats want
to change the program and place part of workers' payroll taxes in
individually managed stock market accounts. This offers the hope of
higher returns but also introduces the risks involved with market
investments. You have spoken favorably of this sort of plan. What
happens to the beneficiaries if they retire during one of the market's
down cycles?

Medicare, another program for the elderly, will face a financial
meltdown in about 15 years as millions of retiring baby boomers put a
huge drain on the system. You have said you hope to solve this problem
without cutting health benefits. No plan currently under discussion
achieves that goal. How would you do it?

Abortion troubles many people on both sides of the issue. This week,
you signed legislation the Texas legislature passed requiring
notification of a parent before an abortion can be performed on a
minor daughter. What other other restrictions do you favor to limit
abortions?

You have proposed giving vouchers to parents to help them send their
children to private schools. This would encourage competition among
schools that would make them all better, you have said. The proposal
raises a question: How can you be sure it will not siphon tax dollars
from poorer neighborhoods, where the neighborhood public school is the
only place most parents can afford to send their children?

You approved when the Texas legislature recently shielded companies
from litigation if their computers prove unable to read the "00" in
the year 2000. Why isn't this a huge bailout for the rich computer
industry and companies that fail to correct a problem that hardly
comes as a surprise?

A debate is raging across the country over school violence. Some say
the cause is the easy access to guns and want to impose new
restrictions on the ownership of weapons. Others say it is the
excessively violent culture in which young people grow up these days.
On balance, which do you think is more important?

You have said your youthful indiscressions are behind you. Still, it's
important that voters know more about a man seeking their confidence
as the nation's commander in chief. Have you ever used marijuana,
crack cocaine or heroin? If so, when was the last time?

J O H N . M a c D O N A L D is the senior correspondent in The
Courant's Washington bureau. His e-mail address is
macdonal@courant.com