Patients’ bill of rights
Al Gore: Doctors are giving prescriptions, they’re recommending treatments and then their recommendations are being overruled by HMOs and insurance companies. That is unacceptable. I support a strong national patients’ bill of rights. It is actually a disagreement between us.
George W. Bush: Actually, Mr. Vice President, it’s not true. I do support a national patients’ bill of rights. As a matter of fact, I brought Republicans and Democrats together to do just that in the state of Texas, to get a patients’ bill of rights through.
Prescription drugs
Bush: I think it’s important to have what’s called Immediate Helping Hand, which is direct money to states so that poor seniors don’t have to choose between food and medicine as part of an overall overhaul.
I’m against price controls. I think price controls would hurt our ability to continue important research and development. Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicine as we used to know it.
Gore: All right, here we go again. Now look, if you want someone who will spin a lot of words describing a whole convoluted process and then end up supporting legislation that is supported by the big drug companies, this is your man.
If you want someone who will fight for you and who will fight for the middle-class families and working men and women, who are sick and tired of having their parents and grandparents pay higher prices for prescription drugs than anybody else, then I want to fight for you.
Foreign policy and the military
Gore: I see a future when the world is at peace, with the United States of America promoting the values of democracy and human rights and freedom all around the world.
I also support modernization of our strategic and tactical weaponry. The governor has proposed skipping a generation of technology. I think that would be a mistake because I think one of the ways we’ve been able to be so successful in Kosovo and Bosnia and Haiti and in other places is by having the technological edge.
Bush: Our nation needs to be credible and strong. When we say we’re somebody’s friend, everybody’s got to believe it. Israel is our friend, and we’ll stand by Israel. We need to reach out to modern Arab nations as well, to build coalitions to keep the peace.
It must be in our vital interest whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we’re going. The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well-defined.
I’m concerned that we’re overdeployed around the world. You see, I think the mission has somewhat become fuzzy.
There may be some moments when we use our troops as peacekeepers, but not often.
Affirmative action
Bush: I’ve worked hard in the state of Texas to make sure institutions are, reflect the state, with good, smart policy, policy that rejects quotas. I don’t like quotas. Quotas tend to pit one group of people against another. Quotas are bad for America. It’s not the way America is all about. But policies that give people a helping hand so they can help themselves.
For example, in our state of Texas, I worked with the legislature, both Republican and Democrats, to pass a law that said if you come in the top 10 percent of your high school class, you’re automatically admitted to one of our higher institutions, higher institutions of learning, college. And as a result, our universities are now more diverse. It’s a smart thing to do. It’s what I called it, I labeled it affirmative access.
Gore: I believe that our future as a nation depends upon whether or not we can break down these barriers that have been used to pit group against group and bring our people together. You don’t ignore differences. It’s all too easy for somebody in the majority in the population to say, “Oh, we’re just all the same,” without an understanding of the different life experience that you’ve had, that others have had.
Once you have that understanding and mutual respect, then we can transcend the differences and embrace the highest common denominator of the American spirit.
I don’t know what affirmative access means; I do know what affirmative action means.
