Other Candidates Again Target Dean
At Iowa Seniors Forum, He Is Chided for Views on Medicare, Bush Tax Cuts
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 16, 2003; Page A04
DES MOINES, Oct. 15 -- Six Democratic presidential candidates wooed senior citizens with promises of prescription drug benefits, economic revival and a new Congress in an AARP forum here Wednesday.
As they have done in previous debates, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) and Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) singled out rival Howard Dean for their sharpest criticism. They accused the former Vermont governor of once supporting Medicare reductions and now endorsing a plan that would effectively raise taxes on the middle class.
"It was wrong, in my view, to agree with a Republican suggestion in 1995 for a $270 billion cut in Medicare to make the budget come out," Gephardt said. Kerry and Gephardt have resurrected newspaper clippings that suggest Dean was willing to limit the growth of the popular health program for retirees.
Dean says he has never condoned cuts to the program. Today, he tried to shift the discussion.
"I'm not going to get into debate with Dick Gephardt over who said what 15 years ago," he said. "The question is who's going to do what now."
Kerry and Edwards criticized Dean for advocating repeal of the full range of tax cuts signed into law by President Bush.
"You don't want to take away the child credit for families raising their children," said Kerry, who wants to rescind the tax cuts on high-income Americans but keep other tax cuts in place. He estimated that the changes Dean supports would cost a family earning $40,000 a year about $2,000.
"There is no $2,000 tax cut for $40,000 workers," Dean retorted. "You know how much the average person in New Hampshire who makes $45,000 a year got -- $465."
Dean has been on the receiving end of many attacks largely because of his surprising early strength. In numerous polls here and in New Hampshire, the first two states where delegates are to be selected , he holds or shares the lead.
Because they are among the most reliable voters in the nation, senior citizens are heavily wooed by politicians. In the last presidential election, Democrat Al Gore won the senior vote handily over Bush.
The two-hour forum, held in a hotel ballroom with several hundred AARP members in attendance, was largely a civil affair, with some relaxed banter. AARP is the largest nonprofit organization that lobbies on behalf of people 50 and older.
To a question about job creation for people in that age group, Kerry said he himself was looking for a new job.
"Actually, Senator Kerry already has a job, and I think he's very good at it," Dean said with a chuckle. "I think he should keep it."
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Al Sharpton skipped the forum, and none of the candidates present mentioned them.
Although he tried to stay above the fray, Dean could not resist criticizing Kerry's assertion that he is the candidate with the "breadth and depth and length of experience both in domestic issues and foreign affairs" and national security.
"If you have the judgment to support the war in Iraq, I don't think that's the right judgment for the White House of the United States," Dean said.
Dean offered himself as the candidate with the experience and outsider status to accomplish many goals that have eluded Washington for decades. In particular, he touted Vermont's success in providing health benefits to nearly all children and giving prescription drug coverage to one-third of the state's retirees.
"There is a big difference between me and everybody else on this stage," he said. "What we need in this country is somebody who will put aside what's been going on in Washington the last 15 years and get something done."
Dean said his election would bring in a wave of Democratic lawmakers. "We won't have to worry about [House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay anymore," he said. "He'll be minority leader or back in Houston exterminating cockroaches, where he belongs."
With the exception of the occasional jousting with Dean, the candidates reserved most of their barbs for Bush, the Republican-controlled Congress and the pharmaceutical industry. Often, they lumped the three together.
"We're going to take on a Republican Party that's been bought by the pharmaceutical industry," Gephardt said in a booming voice. "We're gonna beat 'em and put policy in that's good for seniors."
Edwards, who portrays himself as the populist in the race, complained that Washington "is run by powerful interests, PACs and Washington lobbyists," which he would stand up to.
"George Bush's America is not our America," he said. "In George Bush's America, we have seniors bagging groceries because they lost their pensions."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and former senator Carol Moseley Braun (Ill.) answered nearly every question with a pitch for single-payer health care.
"There is no reforming this dysfunctional system," Braun said. "We've got to stop tinkering with this broken system."
Only Braun was willing to entertain the idea of allowing seniors to invest part of their Social Security money in private accounts. Edwards said he would encourage saving by having the government match the first $1,000 a family invests each year in a retirement account, and Gephardt would make pensions "portable" so that retirees could recoup money earned over several jobs.
Earlier today, AARP released a poll indicating that 64 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers 50 and older think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and 59 percent ranked domestic concerns ahead of foreign policy.
The economy and job creation were the highest priorities of the 802 surveyed, followed by Social Security and health care concerns. The poll, conducted in late September, had a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percent. |
