Ed Muskie for President 1972 Campaign Brochure

‘A New Beginning for America’

Today, people all over America are tired of the old politics and tired of unkept promises and special favors for the few.

They're tired of being lied to about the war.  Misled about the economy.  Or intimidated for daring to be critical.

"There are only two kinds of politics," says Ed Muskie, "the politics of fear, and the politics of trust."

The people want a man they can trust.  They want candor.  They want courage. 

They want a New Beginning. 

Ed Muskie's day has come. 

The New Beginning means an end to the war in Vietnam, right away.

Not the escalation.  An end.  Now.  Some people think the war is over.  It isn't.

Some people think the end is in sight.  It isn't.

Some people think the killing has stopped.  It isn't. 

In fact 40% of all who have died in Vietnam have died since the Republicans took office.  (Indeed 3-½ years after President Nixon said he had a 'secret' plan to end the war, over 150,000 American boys are still fighting.)

Muskie will get every last soldier out.

The New Beginning means Open Government.

For too long a curtain of secrecy has been America's government from the people. Document after document has been classified Secret or Top Secret or Confidential. (Including the amount of peanut butter ordered.) And a bundle of mistakes have been buried under those classifications.

Muskie's Open Government Bill will declassify to documents more swiftly. And we'll know quicker who has been hiding mistakes and who hasn't.

Naturally a lot of politicians don't like the idea. All the more reason why Muskie's bill should become law.

The New Beginning means refusing to accept 6% unemployment.

Muskie says this: "There are two ways to build prosperity. By helping the deserving many, or by helping the comfortable few.  Who carries the burden of the New Economic Policy?  The average-income Americans.

Who did this Administration pick to pay the price of stopping inflation? The average-income Americans. And who did they pick to reap most of the benefits from these tax cuts?  Those who are already well-off.

"The President's best hope now…is an unemployment rate 40% higher than when he took office.

"And his other best hope is a price level 15% higher than when he took office."

Muskie's father was a workingman.  His brother is a workingman.  His hometown in Maine is a workingman's town.

To him, a man stone of work is not a statistic, he's a man and desperate trouble.

Ed Muskie said this: "We mean it when we say to the American breadwinner: 'You'll get a decent job-and you'll get a decent paycheck'."

The New Beginning means giving government back to the people.

That's why Ed Muskie fought tax giveaways for giant oil companies.

That's why his Revenue Sharing Bill can cut your property taxes.

That's why he's working to close loopholes that live multimillionaires pass their fortunes on untouched by taxes.

That's why, under Muskie, a millionaire's secretary will pay more taxes than her boss.

(Today, that actually happens.)

Another thing. America's best farmlands are there to make big businessman ridge. But Nixon appointed Earl Butz, a self admitted foe of the small farmer, to head the Agriculture Department. That's not government by the people.  That's government by big business.  Muskie won’t allow it.

And another thing.  Isn't it funny that the Republicans came up with the tax bill that gives $14 billion to big business and only $5 billion to the workingman?

The New Beginning means no more campaign financing by Special Interests.

Now come on. Where are the Republicans going to get the 40 million they figure to spend in the campaign?

From big business, of course.  Who else has that kind of money?  Certainly not the Democrats. (In 1968, they spent only a fraction of what the Republicans spent.)

Ed Muskie supported the bill that would allow every American to contribute $1 off his income tax to the party of his choice. The White House killed the bill. No wonder.