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Change Your Life! |
President Clinton accuses Republicans of deception |
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August 2, 2000
PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) - Sitting on the sidelines in warm and humid Florida, President Bill Clinton accused Republicans of using their convention in Philadelphia to deceive the public. "Their strategy is to talk about compassion and all that, and it's a brilliant strategy, a pretty package, and they're hoping if they wrap it tight enough, nobody will open it before Christmas," Clinton said Monday. Democrats must make sure that voters focus on the reality and implications of Republican programs well before the November election, Clinton said. In appearances in Tampa and Palm Beach, Clinton raised dlrs 1 million for Democratic Senate candidates, including Florida Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson. He dismissed the prescription drug plan drafted by House Republicans as "a bunch of baloney" that would help drug companies, not the elderly. He portrayed Republican-proposed tax cuts as the will-of-the-wisp day dreams of people who spend lottery winnings before they actually win any money. Clinton noted that the Treasury Department will pay off dlrs 221 billion of federal debt this year and called that "the largest one-year debt pay-down in American history, a giant step toward paying off the entire national debt by 2012. Republican-backed tax cuts would prevent the government from achieving that goal, Clinton said. The president ripped Republican plans and policies on the environment, on maintaining economic prosperity, on education, crime, health care, civil rights and raising the minimum wage. "Now their strategy is to blur all that," Clinton said, asserting that Republicans are using phrases like "compassionate conservatism" to paper over the harshness of their programs.
"They're not bragging about shutting the government down twice anymore, or trying to shut the Department of Education down, or having the biggest Medicare and education and environmental cuts in history," he said at the Palm Beach event. "Gone is the harsh rhetoric and mean words of 1992 through 1999." He compared the Republican eagerness for tax cuts to overindulgence in a cafeteria. "Every time I go to a cafeteria, everything I see looks good, but if I eat it all, I'll get sick," the president said. He said the Republicans appear bent on spending the entire surplus, even if emergencies arise for which the money is needed. It's a lot like getting one of those letters in the mail, the one that says "you MAY have won dlrs 10 million", the president said. "But did you go out and spend that dlrs 10 million the next day?" he asked. "If you did you should support Republicans in this election. But if you didn't, you better stick with us." The president planned to linger in Florida through Tuesday afternoon, giving politics a momentary rest and focusing on his golf game. On the Net: The White House: www.whitehouse.gov Families USA site: http://www.familiesusa.org Medicare site: http://www.medicare.gov
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