FORBES MAG: Gephardt, Kerry battle Dean on Medicare at debate
forbes.com
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Democratic presidential contenders set their sights on former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean on Monday, with rivals Richard Gephardt and John Kerry sharply attacking his record on Medicare and questioning his foreign policy credentials.
At a debate in Iowa, site of the first crucial 2004 nominating contest in less that two months, eight of the nine Democrats vying to challenge President George W. Bush also squabbled over Iraq and assailed a $400 billion Medicare bill headed toward Senate approval as a win for special interests.
Gephardt, who is battling with Dean atop the polls in Iowa, and Kerry, who is chasing Dean in the first primary state of New Hampshire, questioned Dean's commitment to Medicare while in Vermont and whether he would cut growth in the health care program for seniors to help balance the federal budget.
"He cut funding for the blind and disabled," Gephardt said of Dean's efforts to balance the Vermont budget in the early 1990s. "You don't just cut the most vulnerable in our society."
Dean said as a governor he had to make "tough decisions" but denied ever lopping anyone from the Medicaid rolls or cutting human service or education funding. "We need new leadership in this party," he said, a shot at Gephardt's long record leading House Democrats in Washington.
Kerry prompted a heated exchange with Dean, interrupting him repeatedly to ask if he planned to slow the growth rate of Medicare as one step toward balancing the federal budget.
"We are not going to cut Medicare in order to balance the budget," Dean said, adding at one point: "I'd like to slow the rate of growth of this debate."
ESCALATING ATTACKS
The escalating attacks on Dean were another indication of his growing stature and his budding rivalry in Iowa with Gephardt, who won the state during his first unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988 and must win it again this year to survive.
Dean, who has broken Democratic fund-raising records and rejected public financing and the spending limits that come with them, has been a target of attacks in recent weeks from both Gephardt and Kerry.
Kerry, who has slipped well behind Dean in New Hampshire and also opted out of public financing in order to tap his personal assets for the campaign, touted his foreign policy credentials in Congress and his experience as a Vietnam veteran, drawing a direct contrast with Dean.
"I think it matters in the post-September 11th world that we have somebody with experience," Kerry said.
Dean, who has shot to the top of the Democratic pack largely on the basis of his opposition to the war, fired back at Kerry with a reference to his support for a congressional resolution authorizing military action in Iraq.
"His experience led him to give the president of the United States a blank check to invade Iraq," he said.
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, reprising a theme he has sounded on the campaign trail in recent weeks, said all of the candidates needed to quit fighting with each other and focus on their vision for America.
"Now, the Democrats are all at each other's throats," he said. "People are tired of listening to politicians yell at each other."
All of the candidates attacked the $400 billion Medicare bill, charging it was a giveaway to the insurance and drug industries that in the long run would harm those it was designed to serve -- the nation's elderly.
"It's a $400 billion charge to our grandchildren's credit card so that President Bush can be re-elected," Dean said.
Kerry and Edwards participated in the debate via satellite from Washington after voting in the Senate earlier in the day in support of a Democratic filibuster against the Medicare bill.
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who said last week that he would not participate after pulling his campaign out of Iowa, was denied permission to participate by satellite by the Democratic National Committee. |
