Text 3490, 153 rader
Skriven 2004-10-14 13:29:18 av Alan Hess
Ärende: stretched facts, debate III
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/printedition/bal-te.truth14oct14,1,7863490.st
ory?coll=bal-pe-asection
Rivals stretch facts to make points
Statements: The claims made by one candidate against the other did not always
fit the historical record.


By Mark Matthews and Laura Sullivan
Sun National Staff

October 14, 2004

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry each made an obvious
misstatement that could quickly be disproved last night in their final debate
of the campaign, while continuing to offer misleading statements about each
other's positions.

Bush denied, wrongly, that he ever said he wasn't "that concerned" about
al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Kerry, for his part, incorrectly charged that
the president had never met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

In one of the most evidently contradictory moments of the night, Kerry charged,
"Six months after [Bush] said Osama bin Laden must be caught dead or alive,
this president was asked, 'Where is Osama bin Laden?' He said, 'I don't know. I
don't really think about him very much. I'm not that concerned.'"

Kerry used the Bush statement as a new illustration of a point he has made
repeatedly in the debates: that Bush has allowed himself to be diverted from
what Kerry believes is the main objective of the war on terror -- searching out
and crushing al-Qaida.

Bush immediately responded, "Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not
worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations."

In fact, he did. At a March 13, 2002, news conference at the White House, when
asked why he rarely mentioned bin Laden anymore, Bush said, "Well, as I say, we
haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center
of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I'll repeat
what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him."

Meeting Black Caucus

Kerry uttered his false statement about Bush and the Black Caucus while arguing
that the United States still needs affirmative action measures to combat
discrimination against minorities and women.

Referring to Bush, he said, "This is a president who hasn't met with the Black
Congressional Caucus. This is a president who has not met with the civil rights
leadership of our country."

Bush recalled, correctly, he had met with the Black Caucus at the White House.
He met with its members within two weeks of taking office in January 2001 and
in February of this year. The latter meeting was not exactly by invitation. The
caucus chairman, Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, and other members
sought the meeting to demand stronger U.S. action to correct the deteriorating
situation in Haiti, then in the throes of a rebellion.

They were first offered a meeting with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. But they demanded, and got, a
meeting with Bush.

The candidates also sparred over Pell Grants, which offer college money to low-
and moderate-income students. Bush said, "In his last litany of misstatements,
[Kerry] said we cut Pell Grants. We've increased Pell Grants by a million
students. That's a fact."

Kerry responded, "You know why the Pell Grants have gone up in their numbers?
Because more people qualify for them because they don't have money. But they're
not getting the $5,100 the president promised them. They're getting less
money."

Kerry was right. Government statistics show more students are qualifying in the
low- or medium-income category than in the past, leading to more applicants.
Additionally, while Bush pledged to increase the amount of the grants from
$4,050 to $5,100 during his 2000 campaign, he has not.

A 2003 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service also found that
new rules the administration put in place meant more than 80,000 students
received less money than they would have gotten before the rules were
implemented.

Bush and Kerry spent a good portion of last night arguing over health care.
Both stretched the facts.

Bush implied that Kerry supported a government health care system when he said,
"We have a fundamental difference of opinion. I think government-run health
will lead to poor-quality health, will lead to rationing, will lead to less
choice."

Kerry's health care plan, while arguably larger than what Bush proposes, is not
a government system. Independent health experts who have studied the plan have
said 97 percent of Americans who now have insurance would not be affected by
his plan and would keep the insurance they have. More than 27 million people
without coverage of any kind would gain insurance.

Kerry advocates regulating employers and insurance providers more closely, not
doctors or patients, under a plan in which the government helps cover the cost
of catastrophic medical bills to lower overall costs.

Kerry's claim to have "a plan to cover all Americans" with health insurance is
off the mark. In fact, analysts say it would extend coverage to 25 million of
the 45 million Americans who lack health insurance, according to the Associated
Press. Even the Kerry campaign stops short of saying it would eliminate the
problem of the uninsured.

Bush was misleading when he said, "My opponent said those [medical malpractice]
lawsuits only caused the cost to go up by 1 percent. Well, he didn't include
the defensive practice of medicine that costs the federal government some $28
billion a year."

Bush's argument is based on the idea that lawsuits force physicians to pay for
higher malpractice insurance, which raises costs. That issue is open to debate,
but the $28 billion price tag is most likely wrong. According to the Bush
campaign, the figure came from a 1996 study that looked at a small sample pool.
Both the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office in two
separate reports dismissed the study and found any savings would be small.

Foreign policy

Although last night's debate was supposed to be devoted to domestic issues, it
strayed several times into terrorism and the war on Iraq, allowing the
candidates to make some of the same misleading points they had made previously.

Bush, again, charged that Kerry would seek other nations' approval before
defending the United States. The origin of the charge was a statement the
Massachusetts senator made in the first debate, in which he said military
action should be decided in a way that meets a "global test."

Kerry said at the beginning of that debate that he would "never give a veto" to
any country over American security. But he also said that any preemptive action
should pass the "global test where your countrymen, your people understand
fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that
you did it for legitimate reasons. So what is at test here is the credibility
of the United States of America and how we lead the world."

Bush seemed to fudge a little when asked about the 10-year ban on assault
weapons, which expired last month. He said, "I made my intentions -- made my
views clear. I did think we ought to extend the assault weapons ban, and was
told the fact that the bill was never going to move, because Republicans and
Democrats were against the assault weapon ban, people of both parties."

Bush did say that he supported the ban but did not make any calls to Republican
leaders to press for its renewal, though some lawmakers said such an effort
would make the difference in whether the ban survived.

When Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan was asked whether Bush had nudged
any of the leaders, he avoided the question and said, "The president doesn't
set the congressional timetable."

Copyright + 2004, The Baltimore Sun

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