Gore ridicules Bush's record on health insurance in Texas

WASHINGTON - Vice President Al Gore ridiculed Gov. George W. Bush's Texas record Wednesday, asking, "Where are the results?"<br><br>In a stinging critique of Mr. Bush's governorship that Democrats

Thursday, April 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON - Vice President Al Gore ridiculed Gov. George W. Bush's Texas record Wednesday, asking, "Where are the results?"

In a stinging critique of Mr. Bush's governorship that Democrats are eager to push in the fall campaign, Mr. Gore said the governor "wants us to believe that he's committed to issues like education and health care and the environment. . . . But saying it doesn't make it so."

"The Bush approach on these issues is a headline without a story," Mr. Gore told the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. "If he's a reformer, where are the results?"

With their presidential nominations all but formally secured, both the Democratic vice president and the Republican governor were invited to address the editors.

Mr. Gore, himself a former reporter, accepted, and answered five questions from the audience - the closest he's come to a news conference in nearly two months. Mr. Bush, who was campaigning in St. Louis, declined because of scheduling conflicts, an aide said.

In his remarks, Mr. Gore offered a particularly harsh rebuke of Mr. Bush's efforts on health care.

"Texas is Number 1 in the nation for people who have no health insurance at all . . . Number 2 out of all 50 states in the number of uninsured children. Number 2 in the nation for uninsured women," Mr. Gore said.

Noting that Mr. Bush has offered a series of health-care proposals this week, he said the governor is "claiming to be a champion on the issue of health care."

Mr. Bush has vowed to provide access to basic health insurance for low-income working families. And for those not covered through their employers or government programs such as Medicaid, he has proposed tax credits of as much as $2,000 for a family earning less than $30,000.

But Mr. Gore said Mr. Bush's plan does not go far enough, charging there was "no commitment to move to universal coverage."

Nonetheless, Mr. Gore welcomed Mr. Bush to the health-care debate - one that that raged between Mr. Gore and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley during the early Democratic primaries.

Mr. Gore is supporting a "step-by-step" health-care program that would insure all children by 2005. He also supports comprehensive prescription drug benefits in the Medicare program for the elderly and a strong Patients' Bill of Rights similar to the legislation bottled up by Republicans in Congress.

For starters, Mr. Gore urged Mr. Bush to "enroll some of the hundreds of uninsured children and families in his own state of Texas" who have no insurance "because of the political malpractice of the Bush administration."

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

Responding, Bush campaign aides sought to "set the record straight," chiding Mr. Gore in a statement for "taking time out of his busy fund-raising schedule" to go after the governor.

"The worse Al Gore does in the polls, the more he attacks and misrepresents Governor Bush's record in Texas," said Mr. Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer.

"Since Al Gore was elected, 8 million more Americans have no insurance," he added. "Americans deserve a different kind of leader who will get things done."

In his remarks, Mr. Gore also again belittled Mr. Bush's proposal for a five-year, $483 billion tax cut.

"To pay for this scheme, Governor Bush would spend nearly $1 trillion more than the available budget surplus, leaving a Texas-size canyon to be closed," Mr. Gore said. "That means he would have to make deep cuts in the environment, education and health care instead of new investment.

"Or he would take us right back to the Bush-Quayle deficits, which ended up quadrupling our national debt in little over a decade and helped bring us a triple-dip recession."

Assuming a good share of credit for the nation's booming economy, Mr. Gore insisted that Mr. Bush's plan was not even popular in the Republican-controlled Congress.

"Incredibly, implausibly, he is proposing to replace the economic policies that have succeeded beyond anyone's boldest predictions," Mr. Gore said. He dismissed the economic strategies used by Mr. Bush's father when he was president from 1989 to 1993.

"Call it trickle down, call it voodoo economics, call it supply side - the names don't matter because we tried it and it failed miserably," Mr. Gore said.

The vice president methodically picked at Mr. Bush's stewardship as governor Wednesday, but in a near-monotone that belied the partisan bite.

He again portrayed Texas as severely polluted, charging that it was "first in the nation for toxic releases into the air, water and soil." He repeated his call for twice-a-week debates with Mr. Bush, in lieu of radio and televisions ads. And he vowed to readily accept a debate invitation from "any newspaper in this room."

Later, during the brief question and answer session, the editor of the Vancouver Columbian extended an invitation. And Mr. Gore promptly replied, "I accept."

He also said, in response to a question, that he had no intention of pardoning President Clinton, should that issue arise in a Gore White House.

"Well," Mr. Gore told the editor who asked, "once again, President Clinton is way ahead of you on this. He said publicly some time ago he would neither request nor accept a pardon. And that's the answer to that question."