Gore Targets Bush on Medicare
C H I C A G O, July 6, 2000 -- Keeping the focus on Medicare, Vice President AlGore says he would do more as president for the health care programfor the elderly than George W. Bush.
In outlining the contrast for seniors today, Gore will argue that he would spend an additional $339 billion over 10 years on Medicare while Bush proposes no new money for the program.
Gore, the Democratic presidential contender, will make the caseas he works his way through what is to be the final week of his“progress and prosperity tour,” which began June 13 as a two-weekswing to help him claim credit for the economy and reshape thecampaign debate.
During the swing, Gore also has focused on new educationalprograms and bolstering health care. His next plan is to highlighthis Republican presidential rival’s views on welfare.
Strategists argue that Gore’s stand on those issues is more inline with mainstream voters than Bush’s. A feature of his swing hasbeen to cast the differences in staunchly populist rhetoric, whereGore seeks to cast Bush as a defender of the rich and powerful.
“This is not a Coke and Pepsi election,” said Gore spokesmanChris Lehane. “These are candidates who have very different viewsand the differences are stark.”
Specifically on Medicare, Gore plans to argue that he hasoffered a $75 billion plan to extend the Medicare Trust Fund until2030, and a $255 billion plan to add a prescription drug benefit.
Bolster Funding for Health Care
Gore also would bolster funding for health care providers by $40billion, with the money going to nursing homes, home health careproviders and others who offer Medicare-covered care.
His opponent, he says, “has not dedicated one dime toMedicare.”
Bush’s campaign says he has been consistent in proposing toearmark $5 trillion over five years to save and strengthen SocialSecurity and Medicare, including a prescription drug benefit.
Gore has focused tightly on Medicare all week, including duringremarks Wednesday to an American Federation of Teachers conventionin Philadelphia. His loudest applause came when he issued aMedicare protection pledge.
“We know what the other side thinks of Medicare,” Goreshouted. “They were so determined to slash it that they shut downthe government. But the American people shut them down — and we’renever going to let them do that again,”
Gore’s “progress and prosperity” tour is to formally end thisweek, but the theme will live on because it is resonating with thepublic, Lehane said.
“The specific tour that kicked off four weeks ago in New Yorkwill end,” he said. “The discussion will continue. You can neverhave too much prosperity and progress.”
Separately on Wednesday, Gore released a letter demanding that agroup called Citizens for Better Medicare make public itscontributors. The group has run millions of dollars in commercialsbashing Gore’s Medicare plans. In response, Gore aides carefullynoted the ties of senior Bush advisers to the pharmaceuticalindustry.
Gore repeated his complaint today on ABC’s Good MorningAmerica.
“We want them to lift the cloak of secrecy and let us knowwho’s paying for these ads,” he said, complaining that the ads aredesigned to increase drug company profits rather than help peoplepay for their medicines.
At least three Bush advisers have links to the drug industry:Former Rep. Vin Weber’s lobbying firm clients include thepharmaceutical association that funds the industry group, andSchering-Plough; former Republican National Committee ChairmanHaley Barbour lobbies for Bristol Myers Squibb, and Charles Black’sfirm lobbies for Johnson & Johnson and Smith Kline Beecham.
One Gore adviser, former Rep. Thomas Downey, lobbies for Merck &Co. Another, Peter Knight, lobbied for Schering-Plough before hisfirm disbanded.
“Bush’s ties to the pharmaceutical industry may be a bitterpill for them to swallow but they should give the straight dope tothe American people about those ties,” said Lehane.