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Bradley criticizes Gore's 'Beltway' mentalityBy Kevin Landrigan/The Telegraph of Nashua
November 9, 1999 
NASHUA, New Hampshire (NHPrimary.com) -- Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley accused Vice President Al Gore Monday of letting the "Beltway perspective’’ and failure on Capitol Hill push him away from his past support of national health care. "The Beltway perspective says that if you try something once and fail, move on to another issue that polls better or is safer to talk about,’’ Bradley said in a speech given to the American Public Health Association in Chicago. "The Washington reality says that it is easier to campaign against your opponent than for yourself – that negative politics may not be pretty, but that it will always be successful because people in this country are so cynical about the political process they automatically believe the negative over the positive.’’ The remarks were the first time Bradley fired back at Gore, who has criticized his health care proposal repeatedly for three weeks. In 1993, Gore supported President Bill Clinton’s plan to guarantee health care coverage for all, a plan that Bradley described Monday as "too complicated and too top-heavy.’’ The Republican-led, U.S. House rejected it. "The lesson Al Gore learned from the health care defeat was that big, bold things can’t get done in Washington so let’s look to small, symbolic things,’’ Bradley said. "But that was the wrong lesson. Indeed, big rhetoric followed by small actions contributions to the disillusionment people have with politics.’’ Within hours, Gore fired back that a new analysis of Bradley’s national health plan concluded that it would cover only 1 percent more people than Gore’s own plan, but cost more than three times as much, or $1 trillion over 10 years. Emory University professor Ken Thorpe concluded Gore’s plan to guarantee health care for all children by 2005 would cost $312 billion over a decade’s time. "In short, he (Bradley) offers a flawed, trillion-dollar plan that will cost the American people even more in the long run,’’ Gore said in a statement. And Gore renewed his challenge to debate Bradley on their health care plans. "To this day, we have not had a single debate on the issues of importance to America’s families. Given his comments today on health care, I ask him to stand again. How about it, Bill?’’ Gore asked.
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MORE STORIES:Tuesday, November 9, 1999
• Senate approves Republican plan to raise minimum wage, but issue is far from resolved • Bradley assails Gore over health policy • RFK's son declines to run for Illinois House seat • San Francisco GOP endorses longtime nemesis, Mayor Willie Brown • First lady appears in ad for N.Y. Democratic Party • NHPrimary.com: Bradley criticizes Gore's 'Beltway' mentality • NHPrimary.com: Hatch files for president • Trump proposes massive one-time tax on the rich • Helms stands alone to denounce Moseley-Braun on Senate floor • Chafee's first tough choice bucks party line • Trump on California ballot • Gore parodies Bush's showing on foreign policy quiz • Beatty says he's not interested in place on California primary ballot • Forbes predicts questions about Bush candidacy • Microcampaigning: Bill Gates tiptoes into partisan politics • Former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen remains hospitalized for infection • Old IOU, Reagan ties brought consultant aboard long-shot campaign • President answers questions from Internet users • Congress honors school desegregation pioneers • Internet voting is to democracy what Amazon.com is to books • Most elderly who lost HMOs bought worse health plans | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
