Replies to post #59165 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Rick Faurot]

Kerry courts senior voters, takes aim at
Bush health care policy
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040811/...

HENDERSON, United States (AFP) - US Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry decried President
George W. Bush's health care policy, saying
Americans are paying too much for medication while neighboring
Canadians are able to buy cheaper prescription drugs.

Kerry tackled an issue dear to older voters
before a group of retirees in this Nevada town,
where he criticized a system that stops the
importation of cheaper drugs. Opinion polls
put health care among the top concerns of US
voters.

Many seniors in the United States travel to
Mexico or Canada to pay less for their
medication. The United States does not have
a universal health care system covering all
Americans.

"We ought to be able to import lower cost
drugs," said the Massachusetts senator, who
will face the Republican president in the
November 2 election.

Kerry said the Bush administration is allowing big companies to "get a
big windfall."

"It's the wrong priority for America," he said. "Why are Canadians able to
buy those drugs and you pay top prices?"

"I thought these people (in the Bush administration) were the ones who
believed in the market place, in fair competition," he said. "This is not fair
competition, this is monopoly."

Since the start of his campaign, Kerry has said his first proposal as
president would be to reform the health care system.

"For nearly four years, President Bush (news - web sites) has failed to
take meaningful steps to bring down rising health care costs," Kerry's
campaign said in a statement.

"While he has given millions away to HMOs (health maintenance
organizations) and pharmaceutical companies, families have been
squeezed by rising premiums, seniors have suffered trying to get their
medicine and small businesses have struggled to compete and create
jobs."

A Time magazine poll this week showed 11 percent of Americans say
health care is their top concern. It ranks fifth behind the economy, Iraq
(news - web sites), terrorism and "moral values."

A Zogby International poll in July showed health care was in third place
behind the economy and terrorism, while Iraq ranked fourth.

According to Time, 54 percent of Americans say Kerry would handle
health care better than Bush (36 percent).

"When I am president, we will stop being the only advanced nation in the
world which fails to understand that health care is not a privilege for the
wealthy and the connected and the elected -- it is a right for all
Americans," Kerry said at last month's Democratic National Convention.

In December, Bush signed into law a bill reforming the country's
Medicare system, which covers seniors. The new law offers partial
reimbursements for prescription drugs, but Democrats say the law does
not go far enough.

[Rick Faurot]

Director Moore Quotes Goss on Lack of CIA Credentials

Wed Aug 11, 8:05 PM ET Add Politics - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Congressman Porter Goss, President Bush (news - web sites)'s nominee for CIA (news - web sites) director, could be his own worst enemy when it comes to making the case that he deserves to lead the U.S. intelligence agency.

Reuters Photo

"I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified," the Florida Republican told documentary-maker Michael Moore's production company during the filming of the anti-Bush movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."

A day after Bush picked Goss for the top U.S. spy job, Moore Wednesday released an excerpt from a March 3 interview in which the 65-year-old former House of Representatives intelligence chief recounts his lack of qualifications for employment as a modern CIA staffer.

"I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably," Goss is quoted in an interview transcript.

"And I certainly don't have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day: 'Dad you got to get better on your computer.' Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have."

Goss, who served with the CIA clandestine services in Latin America and Europe in the 1960s, was not immediately available for comment.

The White House dismissed the Moore interview transcript as "ridiculous hearsay" and emphasized the depth of bipartisan respect for Goss on Capitol Hill.

"Porter Goss has very strong support from Republicans, and Democrats including Sen. Bob Graham (news, bio, voting record) of Florida," said White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Graham is the former head of Senate intelligence.

"No one's really questioning his qualifications. Even people who say he's too political for the job say he has qualifications for the job," Duffy added.

Goss appears in Moore's film, the most financially successful documentary in history, during a segment devoted to the USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism measure.

Moore told Reuters that Goss, who until Tuesday was chairman of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, granted an interview to two of his producers without first checking to see who they worked for.

"You'd think the person who was the head of the intelligence committee would ask a few more questions," said Moore.

"The reality is that Porter Goss was in charge of the oversight of the CIA during a time when the CIA didn't do its job, which in part resulted in the loss of lives of 3,000 people," he said via telephone from New York.

Goss is expected to appear at confirmation hearings before the Senate intelligence committee next month.