COLMAR, Pa. – President Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry turned their battle to domestic matters Thursday, with the challenger charging that Bush has not addressed “runaway” health care costs and the incumbent accusing Kerry of having a “hidden” tax increase waiting for Americans.
On a rare day in this campaign where the debate turned away from Iraq and the fight against terrorism, the candidates dueled in two fiercely contested states, Bush in Pennsylvania and Kerry in Iowa.
But while the two men at the top of the ticket shifted to the economy and health care, their running mates and representatives continued to squabble about Bush’s record in the National Guard during the Vietnam War and remarks by Vice President Dick Cheney this week suggesting the country would be more vulnerable to a terrorist attack under Kerry.
Former Vice President Al Gore excoriated Cheney for saying that “the wrong choice” in November could lead to another attack. Said Gore, “The claim by Bush and Cheney that the American people must give them four more years in office or else be ‘hit hard’ by another terrorist attack is a sleazy and despicable effort to blackmail voters with fear.”
Kerry’s running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., continued his demands that Bush disavow Cheney’s words, telling supporters in Nashua, N.H., that it is “dishonorable” and “calculated to divide us on the issue of safety and security.”
The Gore charge prompted a dismissive response by the White House, which has said Cheney’s words are being misunderstood but has not repudiated them. “Consider the source,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said of Gore. “He’s made all sorts of attacks against the president.”
Cheney, in Cincinnati, did not repeat the inflammatory charge. Speaking to supporters at a town-hall style meeting, he defended the Iraq war and renewed his disputed contention that Saddam Hussein harbored al-Qaida terrorists. Although the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said there were contacts but no collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaida, Cheney said Hussein “provided safe harbor and sanctuary” for Osama bin Laden’s organization.
Kerry focused on health care in Iowa, which ranks fourth in the nation in its percentage of people over age 65. In addition to rising Medicare costs, Iowa faces $130 million in cutbacks in its Medicaid program, which covers health care for the poor. The state is also a hotly contested political prize: Gore won Iowa in 2000, beating Bush by just 4,144 votes; recent state polls show the race neck-and-neck.
Speaking before a small audience in the gleaming Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Kerry said of his rival: “All he wants to do is fight for a tax cut for the wealthy. … His priority is to screw up today’s budgets. He has no plan for doing anything about (health care costs). He’s been busy losing people’s coverage.”
The Massachusetts Democrat touted a reform program that he has been pushing for months. Kerry’s plan would cover catastrophic cases under a federal program, shifting some of the costs away from private employers and theoretically lowering employee premiums.
Small businesses and self-employed workers would also get a 50 percent tax credit for their health care costs. He also has proposed allowing people ages 55 to 64 to buy Medicare coverage early, and allow more lower-cost drug imports from Canada. Kerry has said he would fund his program by repealing a series of tax cuts for those making over $200,000 a year.
Here in Colmar, Bush, in a buoyant mood as polls show him with a convincing lead over Kerry, disputed Kerry’s math and said the Democrat is intent on raising taxes for ordinary Americans. “My opponent’s tax increases would bring only about $650 billion in revenue over the next 10 years, see, and he wants to spend over $2 trillion,” Bush said. “So you do the math. The plan leaves him more than $1.4 trillion short.”
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