Gore Promises to Defend Family Values with Abortion and Redefining Honor

More Tax and Spend Promises by Al Gore

By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)

August 18, 2000

All in all the Democrat National Convention seemed to be a study in contradiction. The first three days of the convention was obviously intended to assure the various special interest groups which form the core of the Democrat Party - the blacks, the trial lawyers, the homosexuals, the Hollywood entertainment industry, the pro-abortion advocates, etc. However, Al Gore’s speech last night was an effort to wrap Gore in a "family values" mantle that would appeal to those outside the party.

It began as almost a home video of the Gore family - beginning 40 years ago. In fact, it told me a whole lot more about that Gore family and I really wanted to know about the Gore family. And, it was sprinkled with key buzz words designed to appeal to the independent voters:

Tonight, I ask for your support on the basis of the better, fairer, more prosperous America we can build together.

Together, let’s make sure that our prosperity enriches not just the few, but all working families. Let’s invest in health care, education, a secure retirement, and middle class tax cuts.

I’m happy that the stock market has boomed and so many businesses and new enterprises have done well. This country is richer and stronger.

But my focus is on working families — people trying to make house payments and car payments, working overtime to save for college and do right by their kids … Whether you’re in a suburb, or an inner-city … Whether you raise crops or drive hogs and cattle on a farm, drive a big rig on the Interstate, or drive e-commerce on the Internet … Whether you’re starting out to raise your own family, or getting ready to retire after a lifetime of hard work.

So often, powerful forces and powerful interests stand in your way, and the odds seemed stacked against you — even as you do what’s right for you and your family.

However, even the most pro-Gore of the media, ABC News, saw the Convention in Los Angeles, the massive Hollywood Entertainment industry’s hometown, as a gathering of the powerful forces and interests:

"At this year’s Democratic convention in Los Angeles, the famous are rubbing shoulders with the powerful. Film stars like William Baldwin, Warren Beatty and Tommy Lee Jones (Al Gore’s college roommate at Harvard) have come out to lend their support.

"Musicians like the Goo Goo Dolls and David Crosby have turned up at the convention hall. Even wrestling stars "The Rock" and Chyna are making their presence known.

"Christie Brinkley, supermodel and mother of three, is no exception: she participates this week as a super delegate from New York. ABCNEWS.com readers talked to her about her convention experience in a live chat from the Democratic National Convention."

He tried, in the first part of his speech, to continue Clinton’s smooth effort to take the entire credit for the booming economy which revolves around exploding technology:

" For almost eight years now, I’ve been the partner of a leader who moved us out of the valley of recession and into the longest period of prosperity in American history. I say to you tonight: millions of Americans will live better lives for a long time to come because of the job that’s been done by President Bill Clinton."

It was another Bill - Bill Gates - who is responsible for a lot of the technology that brought prosperity, Bill Clinton’s bragging notwithstanding. Gore continued another technique that Bill Clinton found very successful - bringing in human "trophies" to display as props for his "working families" speech as the camera panned on the people he was talking about:

"I met Mildred Nystel in Waterloo, Iowa. Because of our welfare reform, she’s left welfare and found a good job training electricians — and she’s become a proud member of IBEW Local 288. Now she dreams of sending her daughter Irene to college."

Welfare Reform, one of Newt Gingrich’s goals for the Contract With America, was introduced into Congress by the first Republican Congress in history then furiously opposed by both Clinton and Gore and vetoed on three different occasions. When it finally passed with a veto proof majority, Clinton finally signed it and began to call it Clinton’s Administration’s Welfare Reform.

One of the goals of the Contract with America was to control the spiraling costs of prescription drugs and medicines by reforming the outrageous medical liability awards which are a major reason why the prices have skyrocketed in recent years. However, one of Gore’s trophies was Jacqueline Johnson of St. Louis, Missouri who:

"…worked for 35 years as a medical assistant, caring for others. Now she’s 72 years old and needs prescription medicines to care for herself. She spends over half of her Social Security check — her only source of income — on her pills. So she either skips meals, or shops for bargains at a wholesale food store and buys macaroni and cheese dinners in bulk — and then has them at every meal.

I invited her here tonight. And Mrs. Johnson, I promise you once again: I will fight for a prescription drug benefit for all seniors under Medicare.

It’s just wrong for seniors to have to choose between food and medicine while the big drug companies run up record profits.

Democrat Congresses, beginning in 1982, began passing legislation, designed to drive "fee for service" physicians out of business by pushing seniors into federally funded Health Maintenance Organizations. During those years , Al Gore was in the House or the Senate and voted for legislation designed to reorganize American medicine into Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) In 1992 Medicare began paying 100% of seniors medical costs, with the federal government demanding the "right" to decide what the doctors’ costs ought to be. This created a massive Medicare bureaucracy which has attempted to control medical costs by price-fixing physicians fees and micro-managing the medical care the government pays for. Every medical professional almost without exception - doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, pharmaceutical researchers - tell us that this has greatly INCREASED the cost of medical care as doctors try to protect themselves from frivolous malpractice lawsuits by often ordering unneeded tests.

Gore made no mention of the role he and other members of Congress played in creating the current Medicare system which causes the kind of problem he now wants to solve. Prescription drugs in the USA cost more than the same drugs in Canada or Mexico - another phenomenon Gore deplores. Yet, it is the cost of litigation in the United States that causes that but since the trial lawyers who benefit by the present system are Clinton-Gore Campaign contributors, legislation passed by Congress to correct that problem in order to bring down medical costs was vetoed by Bill Clinton. Gore said last night:

"It’s just wrong to have life and death medical decisions made by bean-counters at HMO’s who don’t have a license to practice medicine, and don’t have a right to play God. It’s time to take the medical decisions away from the HMO’s and insurance companies — and give them back to the doctors, the nurses, and the health care professionals."

Of course, the HMOs HAVE the right to play God because Al Gore and other members of Congress voted to give them that right. Its the legislation he and others passed that causes the problem he is now complaining about.

Gore also said last night:

"If you entrust me with the Presidency, I will put our democracy back in your hands, and get all the special-interest money — all of it — out of our democracy, by enacting campaign finance reform. I feel so strongly about this, I promise you that campaign finance reform will be the very first bill that Joe Lieberman and I send to Congress."

That statement was wildly applauded by thousands of Democrat delegates who choose to simply overlook the fact that the worst campaign funding fraud of modern times was perpetrated by the Clinton-Gore campaign fund raisers. And what is Gore’s long-term solution to the failed socialistic Medicare system? Why, he wants to expand that system so it covers EVERYONE, of course!

"We will move toward universal health coverage, step by step, starting with all children. Let’s get all children covered by the year 2004.

"And let’s move to the day when we end the stigma of mental illness, and treat it like every other illness, everywhere in this nation."

What he is saying is that he will implement Hillary’s socialistic system by doing it piecemeal, using the children as a wedge to introduce a new level of socialist entitlements. He doesn’t even bring up the subject of what that would do to the availability of health care or the maintenance of health care quality standards.

He also dwelt on requiring children to start school earlier - in their pre-school years. This would advance another goal of socialism - getting more women into the workforce:

"And I will not go along with any plan that would drain taxpayer money away from our public schools and give it to private schools in the form of vouchers. This nation was a pioneer of universal public education. Now let’s set a specific new goal for the first decade of the 21st Century: high-quality universal pre-school — available to every child, in every family, all across this country."

One of the strongest movements in America today is home schooling and schooling alternatives to public schools. Al Gore stands firmly against those alternatives and seeks to expand the control by public school officials over the up-bringing of American youth. He also stands firmly in the door to prevent passage of Republican legislation to end the Marriage Tax Penalty in the IRS code. The average married couple pay approximately $1400 a year in extra taxes over and above what an unmarried couple would pay making the same amount of money. He said about taxes:

"Not so long ago, a balanced budget seemed impossible. Now our budget surpluses make it possible to give a full range of targeted tax cuts to working families. Not just to help you save for college, but to pay for health insurance or child care. To reform the estate tax, so people can pass on a small business or a family farm. And to end the marriage penalty — the right way, the fair way — because we shouldn’t force couples to pay more in income taxes just because they’re married.

"But let me say it plainly: I will not go along with a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else and wreck our good economy in the process.

"Under the tax plan the other side has proposed, for every ten dollars that goes to the wealthiest one percent, middle class families would get one dime. And lower-income families would get one penny."

In that brief statement he promises to continue using IRS as a means of redistributing wealth in the USA. Why should ANY married couple, regardless of their income, pay additional taxes simply because they are married? The issue here is not just money, there’s a principle involved.

Gore responded to the Republican promise to restore honor to the White House, after 8 years of Clinton scandals and impeachment. In pure Clintonesque style Gore promptly redefined "honor" which the dictionary defines as "integrity" or "honesty" in a person: