Jan. 11, 2000
By
Tom Cronin
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake University
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Vice President Al Gore and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley discussed their views on issues including health care, agriculture, international affairs, education and campaign finance reform during The Des Moines Register's presidential candidates debate Saturday, giving Iowa Democrats an opportunity to see similarities and differences between the two candidates.
The debate, which was moderated by Register editor Dennis Ryerson, was broadcast to a national television audience.
The issue that caused the greatest amount of disagreement between the two candidates was health care.
Bradley proposed a health care plan that would cover the costs of prescription drugs for senior citizens and provide universal health coverage for everybody. To illustrate his plan's advantage, Bradley referred to a woman whose mother spends $10,000 a year -- all of her Social Security check -- on prescription drugs.
"I thought, as she was talking, that she was precisely the person that I intend to help because if she had the program that I'm advocating that the most, she would have paid is $3,000, not $10,000," he said.
Bradley said his plan to give the elderly access to the prescription drugs they need will save money in the long run because it will reduce the need for costly doctor and hospital visits.
Gore pointed to what he said were two flaws of Bradley's health care plan: it doesn't set money aside for Medicare, and it includes costly copayments and premiums.
"There are 40 million Americans on Medicare today, and yet that number is going to double over the next 25 to 30 years to 80 million," Gore said. "So, the trust fund is going down rapidly. By the year 2015, Medicare will be completely bankrupt unless we start acting to change it now. I have a plan to take us toward high-quality health care for all in a way that does not put Medicare at risk."
Bradley, however, said Gore misinterpreted his plan because he intends to replace Medicare with a better program.
"I think Al has the view that if we provide universal health coverage for everybody that we can't protect Medicare," he said. "If we protect Medicare, we can't provide universal health coverage for everybody. I don't agree with that. I think we can do both."
An $800 billion surplus in government funds over the next decade would allow him to protect Medicare while still providing universal health coverage, Bradley said. But Gore said a natural growth in government services over the next decade will account for almost the entire surplus.
Gore repeatedly recommended more debates between the candidates, including a debate about agriculture in Iowa.
"I think we ought to come back and have a debate on agricultural policy," he said, "and I'll come anywhere, anytime, as long as it is in Iowa because this is the No. 1 farm state, the No. 1 caucus state, and farmers have a crisis here, and they deserve to have a detailed discussion of what needs to be done to save the family farm."
Gore added that Bradley was one of a handful of politicians who voted against disaster relief for farmers after the flood of 1993. When asked why he voted against the disaster relief, Bradley said the premise to the question was wrong.
"This is not about the past," Bradley said. "This is about the future. This is about what we're going to do to change the agriculture policy we've had the last eight to 10 years."
Bradley called for several changes in agricultural policies, including expanding the conservation reserve program and providing income supplement to farmers based on the relationship between prices and costs. These changes would benefit family farmers, who currently receive 20 percent of the food dollar, he said.
"We need to help family farmers move further up that chain and get a bigger piece of that food dollar," Bradley said.
Although Gore and Bradley had strong differences concerning health care and agriculture, they had more similarities concerning other issues.
Regarding international relations, Bradley said the nation needs to move from a Cold War budget to a post-Cold War budget, and the United States should not act as a police force of the world.
"We can't be involved in all 32 ethnic disputes in the world with our own forces," he said. "It has to be something that we do together."
Gore agreed with Bradley's statements and added that the president should determine when to use military forces, but military force needs to be accompanied by diplomacy.
"[Other nations are] looking to us for moral leadership in the world to show that people of different ethnic and racial and religious groups cannot only get along, but can actually dream that one day they'll be able to have the kind of freedom and security that we have," Gore said.
His main priority, however, was not international affairs, but education. Gore proposed several plans to improve schools, including providing universal preschools, connecting every classroom and library to the Internet and paying teachers based on their performance.
Bradley said education needs to be looked at on a broader level because education concerns every aspect of people's lives, not just what people learn inside classrooms.
"You can look at education in terms of where people live their lives, and that's the way I look at it, or you could look at it as if it's some bureaucratic box that says education that's unrelated to everything else we do in our lives," he said. "I think that it's a different perspective on how we view education in this country. I have the perspective of life, and I think the vice president has the perspective that it's a box called education."
Bradley said the election is about leadership, not experience. The president must take steps to make things happen so that all Americans can benefit, he said.
"I will not rest until rural America and urban America move ahead," Bradley said. "I will not rest until we leave no one behind, because only if we leave no one behind can we bring everybody together."
The president, however, should fight for Americans instead of just theorizing about the nation, Gore said.
"I don't think that the presidency is an academic exercise or a seminar on theories," he said. "I think the presidency has to be a day-to-day resolute fight for the American people. The presidency, when you think about it, is the only position mentioned in our Constitution, where the individual who holds it has a responsibility to fight not just for some special interest or one particular region, or the wealthy, the connected. He or she has a responsibility to fight for all of the people."
The candidates seeking the Republican party nomination will face off in the second Des Moines Register presidential candidates debate next Saturday at 1 p.m.