Gore takes aim at Bush health care proposals

April 12, 2000
Web posted at: 6:01 p.m. EDT (2201 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday accused his presidential campaign rival, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, of "political malpractice," and urged newspaper editors to closely examine the health care proposal recently unveiled by the presumptive Republican nominee.

"I worked in journalism long enough to know that some claims demand serious scrutiny," Gore told the annual conference of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The likely Democratic presidential nominee worked for The Tennessean in Nashville in the early 1970s.

"How can we believe what he says he would do nationally, when we see what he has done as governor?" Gore said.

Gore's comments came just one day after Bush unveiled a proposal that would provide tax credits to help working people buy health insurance. The Texas governor appears to be encroaching upon traditionally Democratic territory, covering issues such as health care, the environment and education in a series of recent speeches -- all of which are policy items long championed by Gore.

Bush "wants us to believe he's committed to issues like education, health care and the environment," Gore said Wednesday. "Let's face it. The Bush approach on these issues is a headline without a story."

On the Texas governor's health care proposal, Gore said: "I hope that he will start by trying to enroll some of the hundreds of thousands of uninsured families in the state of Texas who have no health insurance -- but are legally eligible for it -- but don't have it because of the political malpractice of the Bush administration."

Asked to respond to Gore's most recent criticism, Bush, who was campaigning in St. Louis, said: "Not right now, thank you."

But Bush senior spokesman Ari Fleischer defended the governor's record, saying he had presided over improvements in Texas health care and had signed a patients' bill of rights. That legislation would allow patients to sue their health plans, a provision that currently is stalling action on a similar bill on Capitol Hill.

"The worse Al Gore is doing in the polls, the more he attacks and misrepresents the governor's record," Fleischer said. "Pretty soon, Al Gore will say he invented health care."

Before leaving the conference to head to a Democratic Party fund-raiser, the vice president said he would accept a presidential-debate invitation from any newspaper editor in the conference room. An editor from Vancouver, Washington, immediately invited him. "I accept," Gore said, noting that the newspaper would be tasked with convincing Bush to acquiesce.

Gore has continually pressed for debates -- even vowing to forgo television advertising if Bush agreed to regular debates -- but Bush has said there will be plenty of time during the fall.

Gore hits fund-raising trail

Fresh from the conference, Gore met with Democratic fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe. Gore and McAuliffe then joined forces with two dozen prominent Democrats who are working on a May 24 Washington gala starring Clinton and Gore.

McAuliffe predicted the fund-raising goal for that event would be $7 million, and the money is earmarked for the Democratic National Convention, slated for August 14 - 17.

Gore also attended a small, $500,000 luncheon for the Democratic National Committee at the Washington home of former New York Rep. Tom Downey, who is now a government consultant for clients including Microsoft.

The vice president's continuous fund-raising has netted the Democratic Party nearly $5 million in the past week -- $500,000 on Wednesday, $1 million Tuesday night, and $3.5 million last week -- and he has a packed weekend of fund-raisers scheduled with the president in Beverly Hills, California, to court big money donors. Those events will mark the first time this year that Clinton and Gore have campaigned together.

Thanks to Gore's virtually nonstop efforts and an assist from President Clinton, the DNC reported taking in $26 million in the first three months of the year, $2 million more than the Republican National Committee.

"I'm proud to be carrying the standard of the Democratic Party at a time when we're prepared to reach out to Republicans, independents and people from all portions and sections of the Democratic party to join in a national coalition to keep our prosperity going," Gore said Tuesday night during a private dinner with gay activists, each of whom each gave $20,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

In a non-fund-raising development, Gore will host Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura on Wednesday night at a private dinner at the vice presidential residence.

Aides to Gore and Ventura couched the meeting as an opportunity for both them and their wives to meet socially. Although Gore would clearly relish an endorsement by Ventura, the highest-ranking independent officeholder, aides said that was not on the evening's agenda.

"It just won't happen," said Ventura spokesman John Wodele.

After dinner with Ventura, Gore will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, to visit the Marie G. Davis Middle School, a trip he canceled last week in order to visit with a sick friend.

When asked whether, if elected president, he would consider a presidential pardon for Bill Clinton should he be indicted over the Monica Lewinsky affair, Gore said: "President Clinton is way ahead of you on this. He said publicly some time ago that he would neither request nor accept a pardon, so that's the answer to that question."

Bush unveils second health care proposal in Missouri

Ignoring Gore's remarks, Bush unveiled his second heath care proposal in as many days -- a $4.3 billion plan to rebuild and increase the number of community health centers across the United States.

Continuing his venture into largely unchartered Republican territory in an attempt to appeal to swing voters in Missouri and elsewhere, the Texas governor's five-year proposal is designed to assist uninsured people living in medically underserved rural and inner-city areas.

"Our society resolved long ago to provide a safety net for those in the most desperate circumstances -- a safety net that includes income support, housing assistance and health services," Bush said.

"The most difficult places to build a quality health facility are the very areas where the need is greatest," Bush said, as he stood in front of his trademark "Reformer with Results" banner, which now includes the word "Opportunity."

Bush announced the proposals during a visit to the Grace Hill Neighborhood Health Center in St. Louis, which provides care for Medicaid beneficiaries as well as uninsured recipients, including 200 resettled refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo.

"These versatile health centers feel like a medical home in the community," Bush said.

There are currently 3,000 community-based centers that serve more than 11 million patients across the country -- including 4.4 million who are uninsured. Bush hopes to build an additional 1,200 centers over the next five years at a cost of $3.6 billion.

His package would also change the National Health Service Corps so that doctors could be sent to neediest areas, and establish a "Healthy Communities Innovation Fund" to provide $500 million in grants for setting up pilot programs or projects targeting specific health demands.

"The most difficult places to build a quality health facility are the very areas where the need is greatest and where patients have the least ability to pay," the Texas governor said.

Outreach to centrist voters

Bush has increasingly billed himself as a "compassionate conservative" and "different kind of Republican" during recent stump appearances -- part of his continued outreach strategy to independent and moderate Democratic voters.

He made his first campaign foray into the health care debate on Tuesday during a stop in Cleveland, proposing a $39.6 billion plan to help 18 million low-income Americans buy insurance.

As part of his "New Prosperity Initiative," the federal government would provide a credit of up to $2,000 per family to cover 90 percent of health insurance costs for those who do not qualify for government-sponsored programs such as Medicaid, yet do not receive insurance from their employers.

But Bush's health care proposals come against a backdrop of unfavorable reports about the state of public health in Texas. According to a recent article in the New York Times, more than a quarter of Texans had no health insurance and the state ranked near the top in rates of AIDS, diabetes, tuberculosis and teen-age pregnancy during Bush's first term as governor.

The report said that aides to the Texas governor acknowledged that Bush had not made health care a top priority.

CNN's Candy Crowley, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.