Who is Joe Lieberman?

Biography

Joseph Lieberman was born in 1942 in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of a small liquor store owner. From a young age, Lieberman was fascinated by politics. As an undergraduate and a law school student at Yale, he became active in state politics and worked for Senator Ribicoff and at the DNC. In 1970, three years out of law school, he ran for a seat on the state senate. With a young Bill Clinton on his campaign staff, Lieberman upset the current senate majority leader. Ten years he ran for an open house seat, but lost 52%-46%. In 1982 he became Connecticut Attorney General, and in 1988 he challenged Senator Lowell Weicker for his Senate seat. In a close, hard fought election, Lieberman upset the incumbent 50%-49%.

In 2000, Lieberman’s name rose to national prominence when Al Gore selected him as his running mate, partly because of his reputation for honesty and partly because of his denunciation of Clinton during the Lewinsky affair. With Gore’s decision, Lieberman became the first Jewish candidate on a major party presidential ticket.

Historically, Lieberman has always been a strong supporter of the Democratic Party; yet not afraid to go against the party if he believed it was the right thing to do. Since his nomination however, he has developed a reputation for flip-flopping on the issues like affirmative action, school choice, and social security to fall more into step with the Democratic Party hardliners who control the primary.

Issues

“The Lieberman persona is so inventive, has been so creative, has been so gymnastic in its many shapes and forms, that only he can even begin to explain it. . . . Many politicians look a bit oily, a bit uncomfortable moving across and around the political spectrum, but our Joe looks as comfortable as if he’s merely changing clothes.” (Laurence D. Cohen, Op-Ed, “The Chameleon Who Came To Dinner,” The Hartford Courant, November 3, 2002)

Taxes

Lieberman’s record on taxes is mixed, and he has changed his stance depending on political and other circumstances. For example, at the beginning of his career, Lieberman looked as though he was a fiscal conservative. He backed a bill to cut capital gains taxes that was eventually passed, and he consistently voted for tax breaks for tuition and other educational expenses.

However, the longer he has been in power, he has become less supportive of tax relief. In 1999 he opposed a $792 billion tax cut saying that it was “premature.” He has also opposed Bush’s 2001 tax cut, ending the marriage penalty, permanently repealing the death tax, and the Jobs and Growth Package of 2003. He also voted against cutting middle class taxes in 1999 by $101.5 billion over five years. Also, like a typical big spender, Lieberman opposed an across the board spending cut as well as a constitutional amendment that would have required a supermajority to raise taxes. Although he has made no formal statement on the issue that we could find, it is unlikely that he would favor any fundamental reform of the tax code. During the 2000 campaign, however, Lieberman and Al Gore advocated tax cuts they claimed would target areas that demonstrated a need for tax cuts. However, this proposal was fundamentally flawed. It consisted of 29 separate tax cuts that people would qualify for if they conformed their behavior in a certain way. They were not tax cuts designed to make sure that people were able to keep more of their income and live their lives as they pleased.

Minimum Wage

“On other issues of primary importance to the unions like increases in the minimum wage and prohibitions against employers’ hiring permanent replacements for striking workers, Lieberman has taken labor’s side” (David E. Rosenbaum, NY Times, p. A19 Aug 8, 2000). He voted against tabling an amendment by Senator Kennedy to increase the minimum wage by $1 over two years. These increases in wages tend to hurt low-income, “unskilled” laborers as it costs jobs and often locks them out of the work place entirely.

Social Security

Like on so many other issues, Lieberman’s position on Social Security is murky at best as he tries to have it both ways. In 1998, he voted against using the federal surplus to create Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs), yet he is on record as saying, “A remarkable wave of innovative thinking is advancing…some personalization of retirement plans,” such a plan, [Lieberman] added, can “give people more confidence about what their retirement years will be like…[I]ndividual control of part of the retirement/Social Security funds has got to happen.” In 1999, he voted against the creation of a lockbox, but in June 2000 he happily wrote an op-ed entitled “My Private Journey Away from Privatization” supporting Gore’s lockbox proposal (Robert Novak, “Moderate Talk, But A Distinctly Liberal Walk,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 10, 2000). On other social security votes, Lieberman voted to eliminate the earnings test for seniors saying, “The current system provides a financial disincentive for millions of capable seniors to contribute their wisdom and experience to the American workforce, which is neither good for the individual or the national economy. It simply runs contrary to our national values to punish hard work for a good wage.” However, he also voted not to allow social security payments to be deducted from income taxes. Lieberman’s positions on social security indicate that he is unsure about how to deal with the future of the system and simply takes the position that will best serve his political ambitions.

School Choice

Lieberman’s positions on school choice can be broken down into two eras, before the Vice Presidential nomination, and after. In 1992, he voted for a proposal to allow low-income families to use vouchers to pay for private school tuition. Gore voted against this bill. Lieberman was a supporter of charter schools and twice voted for the creation of tax-exempt accounts to pay for educational expenses. In 1997, he also voted for the creation of a voucher program in the DC school system. Also In 1997 Lieberman said, “There are some who dismiss suggestions of school choice programs and charter schools out of hand, direly predicting that these approaches will ‘ruin’ the public schools. The undeniable reality here is that this system is already in ruins, and to blindly reject new models and refuse to try new ideas is simply foolish. We can and must do better for these children, and to cling stubbornly to the failures of the past will just not get us there.”

However, ever since his Vice Presidential nomination, Lieberman’s stance on school choice has changed dramatically. Indicating his willingness to sacrifice good policy for the support of teachers unions, he told reporters during the campaign, “if you want to get me off this idea [of vouchers], the best thing to do is elect the Gore-Lieberman ticket” (Ken Foskett, “Democrats Downplay Differences,” The Atlanta Journal And Constitution, August 10, 2000). In 2000, Lieberman said he would continue to advocate vouchers “within the privacy of [his] relationship [with Gore], but never publicly”(MSNBC August 16). In 2000, he signed a document that said, “We need greater choice, competition, and accountability within the public school system, not a diversion of public funds to private schools that are unaccountable to taxpayers” indicating further withdraw from his earlier positions on the issue, and in 2001 he told President Bush that he was “firmly opposed” to the voucher portion of his education package. These statements are entirely contradictory to his statements earlier in the 1990s indicating Lieberman’s lack of conviction to his principles and, again, his willingness to sacrifice them for political gain.

Welfare Reform

Lieberman’s record on welfare reform is pretty solid. Lieberman voted in 1995 to overhaul the welfare system, and in 1996 he was a strong advocate of the major piece of welfare reform legislation. Today, he champions the creation of Individual development accounts for low-income families. These accounts are tax-free and can be used for education, home ownership, or new business start ups. The only problem with Lieberman’s version is that the government would match the funds in the account dollar for dollar. While this would surely help low-income families, it creates problems of ownership over the account and the question of what the government expects in return for its generosity. Lieberman also supports giving block grants to the states so they can tailor their welfare programs to meet the needs of their citizens.

Tort Reform

Unlike many of the other Democratic presidential candidates, Lieberman is a strong advocate of civil justice reform. As the Republican National Committee’s website writes: “Lieberman supported ‘just about every tort reform proposal that’s come along the track,’ while Kerry voted against caps on punitive damages, and Edwards has always been a friend to trial lawyers.” The National Law Journal has said that Lieberman is “unsurpassed among Senate Democrats in supporting tort reform.” The American Tort Reform Association claims, “Joe Lieberman is the most effective Democrat in the Senate [on tort reform].” Although during the campaign, as with most other issues, Lieberman softened his stance a bit, he remains a strong advocate for ending lawsuit abuse.

Free Trade

Lieberman is a free trading Democrat. On this issue his voting record is clear. He voted to extend normal trading relations to Vietnam, to expand trade with countries in Africa and Central and South America, and to remove export restriction from dual use goods that are readily available from other countries. He has long been a supporter of Fast Track and Trade Promotion Authority.

Lieberman’s Scorecards

KEY

ADA – Americans for Democratic Action

ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union

AFS – American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees

LCV – League of Conservation Voters

CON – Concord Coalition

ITIC – Information Technology Industry Council

NTU – National Taxpayers Union

COC – Chamber of Commerce of the United States

ACU – American Conservative Union

NTLC – National Tax-Limitation Committee

CHC – Christian Coalition

This profile draws on research done by the RNC, Ontheissues.org, and Michael Barone’s The Almanac of American Politics 2002.