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MODERATOR:
Good
evening from the Clark Athletic Center at the University of
Massachusetts
in Boston. I'm
Jim Lehrer of the NewsHour on PBS, and
I welcome you to the first of
three 90-minute debates between the
Democratic candidate for
president, Vice President Al Gore and the
Republican
candidate, Governor George W. Bush of Texas.
The debates
are sponsored by the
Commission on Presidential Debates and they will
be
conducted within formats agreed to between the two campaigns.
We'll
have the candidates at podiums.
No answer to a question can
exceed
two minutes. Rebuttal
is limited to one minute.
But as
moderator I have the option
to follow up and extend any give and take
any
three-and-a-half minutes.
Even then, no single answer can exceed
two
minutes. The candidates under their rules may not question each
other
directly. There
will be no opening statements, but each
candidate
may have up to two minutes for a closing statement.
The
questions
and the subjects were chosen by me alone.
I have told no
one from the two campaigns,
or the Commission, or anyone else
involved
what they are. There
is a small audience in the hall
tonight. They are not here to participate, only to listen.
I have
asked, and they have agreed,
to remain silent for the next 90
minutes. Except for right now, when they will applaud as we welcome
the
two candidates, Governor Bush and Vice President Gore.
(Applause)
MODERATOR:
And
now the first question as determined by a flip of a coin, it
goes
to Vice President Gore. Vice
President Gore, you have
questioned whether Governor
Bush has the experience to be President
of
the United States. What
exactly do you mean?
GORE:
Well,
Jim, first of all, I would like to thank the sponsors of this
debate
and the people of Boston for hosting the debate.
I would like
to thank Governor Bush for
participating, and I would like to say I'm
happy
to be here with Tipper and our family.
I have actually not
questioned
Governor Bush's experience.
I have questioned his
proposals. And here is why. I
think this is a very important moment
for
our country. We
have achieved extraordinary prosperity.
And in
this
election, America has to make an important choice.
Will we use
our
prosperity to enrich not just the few, but all of our
families?
I
believe we have to make the right and responsible choices.
If I'm
entrusted with the
presidency, here are the choices that I will
make.
I will balance the budget every year.
I will pay down the
national
debt. I will put
Medicare and Social Security in a lockbox
and
protect them. And
I will cut taxes for middle-class families.
I
believe it's important to
resist the temptation to squander our
surplus. If we make the right choices, we can have a prosperity that
endures
and enriches all of our people.
If I'm entrusted with the
presidency, I will help
parents and strengthen families because, you
know, if we have prosperity
that grows and grows, we still won't be
successful unless we
strengthen families by, for example, ensuring
that
children can always go to schools that are safe.
By giving
parents the tools to protect
their children against cultural
pollution. I will make sure that we invest in our country and our
families. And I mean investing in education, health care, the
environment,
and middle-class tax cuts and retirement security.
That
is my agenda and that is why
I think that it's not just a question of
experience.
MODERATOR:
Governor
Bush, one minute rebuttal.
BUSH:
Well,
we do come from different places.
I come from being a West
Texas. The governor is the chief executive officer.
We know how to
set
agendas as a governor. I
think you'll find the difference
reflected
in our budgets. I
want to take one-half of the surplus and
dedicate
it to Social Security. One-quarter
of the surplus for
important projects, and I
want to send one-quarter of the surplus
back
to the people who pay the bills.
I want everybody who pays
taxes
to have their tax rates cut.
And that stands in contrast to my
worthy opponent's plan, which
will increase the size of government
dramatically.
His plan is three times larger than President
Clinton's
proposed plan eight years ago.
It is a plan that will have
200 new programs -- expanded
programs and creates 20,000 new
bureaucrats. It it empowers Washington.
My vision is to empower
Americans to be able to make
decisions for themselves in their own
lives.
MODERATOR:
So
I take it by your answer, then, Mr. Vice President, in an
interview recently with the
"New York Times" when you said that you
questioned whether or not
Governor Bush has experience enough to be
president,
you were talking about strictly policy differences.
GORE:
Yes,
Jim. I said that his tax cut plan, for example, raises the
question
of whether it's the right choice for the country.
And let
me
give you an example of what I mean.
Under Governor Bush's tax cut
proposal, he would spend more
money on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%
than all of the new spending
that he proposes for education, health
care,
prescription drug and national defense all combined.
Now, I
think
those are the wrong priorities.
Now, under my proposal, for
every dollar that I propose
in spending for things like education and
health
care, I will put another dollar into middle class tax cuts.
And
for every dollar that I spend in those two categories, I'll
put
$2
toward paying down the national debt.
I think it's very important
to
keep the debt going down and completely eliminate it.
And I also
think
it's very important to go to the next stage of welfare reform.
Our
country has cut the welfare rolls in half.
I fought hard from my
days in the Senate and as
vice president to cut the welfare rolls and
we've
moved millions of people in America into good jobs.
But it's
now time for the next stage
of welfare reform, and include fathers
and
not only mothers.
MODERATOR:
We're
going to get a lot of those.
BUSH:
Let
me just say that obviously tonight we're going to hear some
phony
numbers about what I think and what we ought to do.
People
need to know that over the
next ten years it is going to be $25
trillion of revenue that
comes into our treasurey and we anticipate
spending
$21 trillion. And
my plan say why don't we pass 1.3
trillion
of that back to the people who pay the bills?
Surely we can
afford 5% of the $25 trillion
that are coming into the treasury to
the
hard working people that pay the bills.
There is a difference of
opinion. My opponent thinks the government -- the surplus is the
government's
money. That's not
what I think. I
think it's the
hard-working people of
America's money and I want to share some of
that money with you so you
have more money to build and save and
dream
for your families. It's
a difference of opinion.
It's a
difference between government
making decisions for you and you
getting
more of your money to make decisions for yourself.
MODERATOR:
Let
me just follow up one quick question.
When you hear Vice
President Gore question your
experience, do you read it the same way,
that
he's talking about policy differences only?
BUSH:
Yes.
I take him for his word.
Look, I fully recognize I'm not of
Washington. I'm from Texas. And
he's got a lot of experience, but
so
do I. And I've been the chief executive officer of the second
biggest
state in the union. I
have a proud record of working with
both
Republicans and Democrats, which is what our nation needs.
Somebody
that can come to Washington and say let's forget all the
finger pointing and get
positive things done on Medicare,
prescription
drugs, Social Security, and so I take him for his word.
GORE:
Jim,
if I could just respond.
I know that. The governor used the
phrase phony numbers, but if
you look at the plan and add the numbers
up,
these numbers are correct.
He spends more money for tax cuts for
the wealthiest 1% than all of
his new spending proposals for health
care, prescription drug,
education and national defense all
combined. I agree that the surplus is the American people's money,
it's
your money. That's
why I don't think we should give nearly half
of it to the wealthiest 1%,
because the other 99% have had an awful
lot
to do with building the surplus in our prosperity.
MODERATOR:
Three-and-a-half
minutes is up. New
question. Governor Bush, you
have
a question. This
is a companion question to the question I
asked
Vice President Gore. You
have questioned whether Vice
President Gore has
demonstrated the leadership qualities necessary to
be
President of the United States.
What do you mean by that?
BUSH:
Actually
what I've said, Jim. I've
said that eight years ago they
campaigned
on prescription drugs for seniors.
And four years ago
they
campaigned on getting prescription drugs for seniors.
And now
they're
campaigning on getting prescription drugs for seniors.
It
seems
like they can't get it done.
Now, they may blame other folks,
but it's time to get somebody
in Washington who is going to work with
both Republicans and
Democrats to get some positive things done when
it
comes to our seniors. And
so what I've said is that there's been
some
missed opportunities. They've
had a chance. They've
had a
chance
to form consensus. I've
go a plan on Medicare, for example,
that's a two-stage plan that
says we'll have immediate help for
seniors and what I call
immediately Helping Hand, a $48 billion
program. But I also want to say to seniors, if you're happy with
Medicare
the way it is, fine, you can stay in the program.
But we're
going to give you additional
choices like they give federal employees
in
the federal employee health plan.
They have a variety of choices
to
choose, so should seniors.
And my point has been, as opposed to
politicizing an issue like
Medicare, in other words, holding it up
hoping somebody bites it and
try to clobber them over the head for
political purposes, this year
it's time to get it done once and for
all.
That's what I've been critical about the administration
for.
Same
with Social Security. I
think there was a good opportunity to
bring Republicans and
Democrats together to reform the Social
Security
system so seniors will never go without.
Those on Social
Security today will have
their promise made, but also to give younger
workers the option at their
choice of being able to manage some of
their own money in the
private sector to make sure there's a Social
Security
system around tomorrow. There
are a lot of young workers at
our rallies we go to that
when they hear I'll trust them at their
option to be able to manage,
under certain guidelines, some of their
own money to get a better
rate of return so that they'll have a
retirement plan in the
future, they begin to nod their heads and they
want
a different attitude in Washington.
MODERATOR:
One
minute rebuttal.
GORE:
Well,
Jim, under my plan all seniors will get prescription drugs
under
Medicare. The
governor has described Medicare as a government
HMO.
It's not, and let me explain the difference. Under the
Medicare prescription drug
proposal I'm making, here is how it works,
you
go to your own doctor. Your
doctor chooses your prescription.
No
HMO or insurance company can take those choices away from you.
Then
you go to your own pharmacy.
You fill the prescription and
Medicare
pays half the cost. If
you're in a very poor family or if
you have very high costs,
Medicare will pay all the costs, a $25
premium, and much better
benefits than you can possibly find in the
private
sector. Now here
is the contrast. 95%
of all seniors would
get no help whatsoever under
my opponent's plan for the first four or
five
years. Now, one thing I don't understand, Jim, is why is it
that the wealthiest 1% get
their tax cuts the first year, but 95% of
seniors have to wait four to
five years before they get a single
penny?
BUSH:
I
guess my answer to that is the man is running on Medi-scare.
Trying
to frighten people into the voting booth.
It's not what I
think
and it's not my intentions and not my plan.
I want all seniors
to
have prescription drugs in Medicare.
We need to reform Medicare.
This
administration has failed to do it.
Seniors will have not only
a Medicare plan where the
poor seniors will have prescription drugs
paid
for, but there will be a variety of options.
The current system
today has meant a lot for a
lot of seniors, and I really appreciate
the
intent of the current system.
If you're happy with the system
you
can stay in it. There
are a lot of procedures that haven't kept
up
in Medicare with the current times.
No prescription drug
benefits, no drug therapy, no
preventative medicines, no vision
care.
We need to have a modern system to help seniors, and
the idea
of supporting a federally
controlled 132,000-page document
bureaucracy as being a
compassionate way for seniors, and the only
compassionate
source of care for seniors is not my vision.
We ought
to
give seniors more options.
I believe we ought to make the system
work
better. I know this. I
know it will require a different kind
of leader to go to Washington
to say to both Republicans and
Democrats,
let's come together. You've
had your chance, Vice
President, you've been there
for eight years and nothing has been
done.
My point is, is that my plan not only trusts seniors
with
options, my plan sets aside
$3.4 trillion for Medicare over the next
ten
years. My plan also says it requires a new approach in
Washington,
D.C. It's going
to require somebody who can work across
the
partisan divide.
GORE:
If
I could respond to that.
Under my plan I will put Medicare in an
iron clad lockbox and prevent
the money from being used for anything
other
than Medicare. The
governor has declined to endorse that idea
even though the Republican as
well as Democratic leaders in Congress
have
endorsed it. I
would be interested to see if he would say this
evening
he'll put Medicare in a lockbox.
$100 billion comes out of
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