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Wednesday, October 18, 2000

Gore, Bush misuse statistics, facts
Debate had old numbers, exaggerations, false policy descriptions
By Calvin Woddward
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Al Gore and George W. Bush relied on outdated numbers to describe the state of health care and mischaracterized some of their own policies in their final presidential debate Tuesday.
   The vice president also made an attack on drug companies that conflicts with independent studies. Gore claimed that drug makers "are now spending more money on advertising and promotion - you see all these ads - than they are on research and development."
   In fact, the industry spent between $5.8 billion and $8.3 billion on promotion and $21 billion on research and development in 1998, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study in July. There has been a 20-fold increase in TV drug advertising over the past six years.
   Bush's statement that prescription drug coverage should be "an integral part of Medicare" was an odd description of his plan, which is notable for encouraging private-sector choices that may be outside the Medicare system.
   Gore, by omission, made his plan to help parents with the costs of college sound more generous than it is. Gore actually offers people a choice of an increased tax credit or the tax deduction. The additional benefit, for many families, would be $800.
   Gore also suggested his Republican rival's education plan would force states to give parents whose children are in failing schools vouchers to send their children to private schools. Bush's plan offers more choices than that, including using tax money to go to another public school, a charter school or to get tutoring.
   Gore also said that when a school is found to be failing under Bush's plan, "kids would be trapped there for another three years" before anything is done. He suggested that his own plan would result in a failing school being closed and reopened under new leadership right away.
   In fact, Gore's plan to rescue a failing school would take two years.
   Bush also repeated a charge from Republican ads that Gore is proposing to spend three times as much as President Clinton. The Clinton spending he is talking about, however, dates to the president's first budget proposal for 1993. Back then, the budget deficit was near its peak; today there are huge surpluses that allow for higher spending. And on paper, Bush would use up more of the surplus with his tax cuts and spending than Gore.

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