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Clinton blasts GOP on tax, drug plans as convention opens

TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- As Republicans opened their national convention Monday, President Clinton warned voters to look behind the GOP's more moderate stance and criticized its moves tax cuts and prescription drug coverage for seniors.

"Their strategy is to talk about compassion and all -- and it's a brilliant strategy and a pretty package -- and they're hoping if they wrap it tight enough, no one will open it up before Christmas," Clinton told guests at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fund-raiser in Tampa.

Clinton said Americans agree with Vice President Al Gore, the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee, and other Democrats on health care, education and fiscal discipline. But he said they have been impressed by Republicans' ability to repackage centrist themes on these and other issues.

"What we've got to do is to make sure that the American people open the package in September and October, because our economic policies, our educational policies, our health care policies are right for the country," Clinton said. "Because the idea of building one America, not just with words but with deeds, and giving everybody a chance to participate in this brilliant future of science and technology and this global economy is the right thing for the country."

Clinton came to Florida, a key battleground state with 25 electoral votes, to drive home an issue White House officials say strongly favors Democrats and Gore -- adding a prescription drug benefit to the federal Medicare program for seniors. The president was scheduled to attend three fund-raisers in Florida, which were expected to bring in more than $1.1 million for the party.

White House officials have reportedly become increasing distressed with Bush's lead over Gore in recent national polls, and with what they consider a glossy and uncritical appraisal the GOP standard-bearer, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, has received in the national media. And they have grown weary of Republicans accusing them or Gore of engaging in negative campaigning when they criticize Bush or congressional Republicans on key issues.

Sensitive to public fatigue with harsh campaign rhetoric, Clinton called for a truce of sorts Monday.

"We don't have to have one of these negative campaigns," Clinton said. "I recommend we just call a time out and say everybody running this year is good, patriotic American, men and women who love their families and love their countries and will do what they think is right. But they have honest disagreements."

White House officials say the president will lay low after Monday. He has no official schedule for the rest of the week, and is scheduled to leave for Martha's Vineyard for vacation Friday.

Insurers won't follow GOP plan, Clinton says

Earlier, he criticized Republican tax cuts and the House-passed prescription drug proposal that Democrats have said favors insurance companies over the elderly.

"This week, you may hear if you turn on television, the Republicans when they meet in Philadelphia in convention, talking about all their tax cut bills and how wonderful they'd be for you," Clinton said at the Barksdale Special Programs Center in Tampa. "But what they don't say is that if you take all of their tax cut proposals in total, it spends the entire projected surplus of the country for the next 10 years."

He appeared at the senior center with Bill Nelson, the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Connie Mack. Democrats believe Nelson has a good chance of defeating Republican Rep. Bill McCollum, and the race is part of the developing Democratic strategy to retake control of the Senate.

Clinton went out of his way to drive home differences between Republican and Democratic agendas Monday. He said the GOP bill to eliminate the estate tax would provide 4,300 Florida families with a tax cut, while his Medicare-based drug benefit program would provide coverage to more than 2.7 million Floridians on Medicare.

He dismissed the House Republican prescription drug benefit plan as fraudulent, telling the audience that private insurance companies, on whom the bill relies to provide drug benefits, will not do so: It's too difficult to create a benefits package that covers the needs of seriously ill patients while retaining a reasonable deductible and monthly premium, he said.

"Even the insurance companies concede that a Medigap insurance model will not work for prescription drug coverage," Clinton said.

"Insurance companies are refusing to participate in such a program. The state of Nevada tried to implement a private insurance model quite similar to the Republican plan, which passed through Congress. They could not find one, single qualified insurance company even willing to offer the coverage because they knew it couldn't be done at an affordable rate," he said.

Medigap provides supplemental insurance coverage that seniors purchase to augment Medicare coverage. Since Medicare does not provide any prescription drug coverage, some seniors -- about 12 percent of Medicare's 34 million elderly beneficiaries -- purchase Medigap drug coverage. But costs have proven prohibitive and the number of policy-holders is dropping steadily.

Clinton also released a new White House study showing drug costs are even higher and more burdensome for the 5 million disabled Americans covered by Medicare. Disabled Medicare beneficiaries who lack additional coverage pay 50 percent more for 50 percent fewer drug prescriptions than disabled Americans with drug coverage. Only five percent of the five million disabled Medicare recipients have private drug coverage, the report said.

"These drugs aren't only life-saving; they can help people with disabilities return to work and make even greater contributions to their communities," Mr. Clinton said. "When you go to the pharmacist to fill a prescription, nobody asks you whether you voted Republican or Democrat in the last 40 years. You're just a person and you need the medicine."