Joins Times Square Town Meeting
HEADLINE: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BILL BRADLEY JOINS TIMES SQUARE TOWN MEETING AND ANSWERS QUESTIONS
ANCHORS: CHARLES GIBSON; DIANE SAWYER
BODY:
CHARLES GIBSON, co-host: And with us this whole half-hour for our GOOD MORNING AMERICA townTIMES SQUARE TOWN MEETING, that's a handful to say, we are very happy to welcome Senator Bill Bradley.
Good to have you here.
Mr. BILL BRADLEY (Presidential Candidate): Good to be here. Good to be back.
GIBSON: Let me start with a standardized question here. We started the question with John McCain, and we'll ask you the same thing. First thing you'd do as president if elected president?
Mr. BRADLEY: The first thing I'd do is try to select the best possible cabinet to serve the people of this country. Get the highest quality people wherever they are, whatever party they're in, in order to make sure that the American people have the best government they've ever had.
GIBSON: Second thing, then, after you've chosen the cabinet, because you have to do that, give me a policy issue you'd attack first.
Mr. BRADLEY: Clearly, the most important thing to me is to make this economy continue to grow and have that growth fairly shared. Increase the number of Americans with health insurance, get campaign finance reform, and reduce the number of children in poverty in this country. Those are the clear objectives. Underlying that is a deep commitment to racial unity in this country.
GIBSON: All right. Some of those issues I think will come up in our questions from the audience and from people who have given us questions over the Internet. I do want to ask you a couple of quick questions about health. If your heart problem, as you said, is nothing but a nuisance, why didn't you tell people about it beforehand?
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, Charlie, we were actually prepared to make a release on the Monday after it actually occurred. And we were planning to do that because I just had a full health exam the week before, and I wanted to give the fullest explanation the closest time possible to the Iowa caucuses. And so we were scheduled to do that the following week. My heart had a different sense of timing, and so we did it on Friday as opposed to Monday.
GIBSON: Article this morning in the Washington Post said that they had requested your health records in the past and had been told by your campaign that there would be no release of health records at all unless you got the Democratic nomination.
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, you know, I think this is an evolving art in terms of campaigns, and when health records were revealed in the past, and usually they were revealed after a nomination, but certainly there's no problem, and I revealed fully the results of the examination I had. This is a nuisance. Millions of Americans have it. President Bush had it. And it's certainly not something that interferes in any way with what I do.
GIBSON: So you will fully release health records in the next week or so?
Mr. BRADLEY: We have fully released the results of an examination that was...
GIBSON: On the heart, but I mean other than that.
Mr. BRADLEY: No, no. No, no, we released the full examination, every aspect of the examination.
GIBSON: All right. Diane, some questions from audience.
DIANE SAWYER, co-host: You've mentioned health care, and I just want to summarize your position, which is really dangerous, because I'm going to get it wrong. But it's basically to eliminate Medicare, replace it with...
Mr. BRADLEY: No, no.
SAWYER: Medicaid, sorry. Medicaid, excuse me. Definitely different. To eliminate Medicaid and replace it with subsidies for private insurance, which would cover about 95 percent of adults and all children who do not have health insurance right now. Is that correct?
Mr. BRADLEY: That's more or less it. We also do a drug benefit for the elderly, make major investments in prevention, early intervention, and make an effort to make sure that the middle class is assisted in paying for their health insurance.
SAWYER: OK. I want to turn to Trina Carter of New Jersey, who has a question based on that. Right?
Ms. TRINA CARTER: Yes, I do have a question. I wanted to know how we can entitle every citizen to affordable and accessible health care without going the route of socialized medicine in this country.
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, it's really interesting because what we do is we put forth a program that lets what the private sector does best do what it does, which is provide a variety of choices of health plans for people, the community do what it does best, which is go out and promote prevention and early intervention, and the government to do what it does best, which is to help people in need pay for that private health insurance and spread the risk. And so, this is not anything like government medicine. It's unlike 1993 when the proposal was to lay the costs on the back of small business when the Clinton-Gore program came in, and it's certainly not a giant government bureaucracy. It maintains the best of what the private sector, the community and government does. So it's existing plans that people will choose; for children, there will be new plans that they'll choose.
The real point here is that our health care system today nobody likes. I mean, doctors have lost the joy of practicing medicine, nurses are underpaid and underappreciated. Millions of Americans who have health insurance worry are they going to be able to get the doctor when they need a doctor, isisare they going to be able to get into a hospital when they need a hospital. Millions of middle-class Americans are paying too much for their health insurance, not getting enough. And then there are 44 million Americans without any health insurance at all in this country. So we're at a time where we need a big reform to deal with this very serious systemic problem that we're facing in the country today. And that's what I've offered.
SAWYER: One of the issues raised by Vice President Gore is that he says that you would have a deductible for prescription drugs but he wouldn't have one. And that your plan would cost vastly more than his, and, of course, he cited a study in which he said it would effectively break the bank. I'm curious. There's a leaflet I have here that says that what he's been saying about your prescription drug coverage in general 'is not true and Al Gore knows it's not true.' And in fact, the Washington Post has a headline I want to put up here. In an interview that they had with you, 'Gore lies repeatedly, Bradley says.' Is Al Gore lying?
Mr. BRADLEY: I'm saying he's misrepresenting the plan itself. Or should I say, I think people are pretty fed up with politicians who know the truth but only tell a part of it, and that's what this is. The fact is, yeah, we require people to have a deductible, but what he refuses to tell you is, in his plan, you have to pay a 50 percent copay, which is the same thing essentially.
For example, what we've done is we've said there will be no cap on the drug benefit for the elderly, so that, if in the next decade we get a number of lifesaving drugs coming online because of biotechnology, that means that that drug will be fully paid by the national government, after you've paid $ 800 and 25 percent of the rest. And what he says is you pay 50 percent of the drug costs. So it'sfrom the beginning coverage, it's a 50 percent copay.
GIBSON: Isn't the deductible $ 500?
Mr. BRADLEY: The deductible's $ 500.
GIBSON: Isn't that higher than the average person pays for drugs in a year?
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, you know, Charlie, it is higher than the average person pays, but the point here is that a lot of people are covered by their own health plan for prescription drugs. A lot of others have HMOs that cover drugs. And I think what senior citizens, because we're talking about senior citizens here, what senior citizens are particularly worried about is getting ill and having a drug available that can keep them alive and then not being able to afford that drug. And in the decade to come, those drugs will be expensive because they'll be brand-new drugs, and the thing we also neglect to recognize is that that's going to save the health-care system overall because if you're able to take a lifesaving drug and stay in your home and remain well, that means you're not going to have to be in a hospital at $ 300--$ 3,000 a day with very expensive doctors. So you have to look at the
total systemic costs.
GIBSON: All right. We take a break. We'll be back with Senator Bill Bradley when GOOD MORNING AMERICA continues.
(Commercial break)
GIBSON: We're back with Senator Bill Bradley. Another question from our audience.
SAWYER: A question about race. Oprah Richards from Georgia.
Ms. OPRAH RICHARDS: In light of recent race-related crimes across the United States and movements to eliminate affirmative action, what is your stand on that as far as the continuation or the ceasement, I guess, of affirmative action?
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, I think we need very strong anti-hate crime legislation in this country to deal with race-related crime. I think I strongly support affirmative action. I think it's common sense, reaching out to the broadest possible community in this country, in order to bring people of talent into work, for example, or universities.
And for me, race is one of the main reasons I got into politics in the first place, and if I were president of the United States, not only would my cabinet reflect the diversity of this country, but there'd be a kind of tone in the administration, and that tone would bewell, when Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and you wanted to please the boss, what you talked about was increasing defense and fighting communism.
If I'm president, and you want to please the boss, what you're going to have to show is how in your life and your job and your department you've come up with racial understanding. And I think we have a unique opportunity here, and that is to re-create a multiracial coalition to deal with the real injustice in our country. And the injustice today is the fact that there are still 14 million children living in poverty, 36 percent of whom are white, 30 percent of whom are black, 24 percent of whom are Latino.
So there's a potential for multiracial coalition coming together to deal with this problem. And when we work together, suddenly the issues become much less strident. For example, someone once said in 1996 when they were in Southern Georgia rebuilding a black church that had been burned in a multiracial setting, when you're out there next to someone building a church, it doesn't make any difference what color their skin is.
GIBSON: Some quick questions from our audience on the abcnews.com. Mr. Bradley, do you have any skeletons in your closet? This from Tricia in Portland, Maine.
Mr. BRADLEY: No, I think before you get into this, you have to make sure that's not true.
GIBSON: A question that goes to US-Israeli relations and the arrested spy Jonathan Pollard. What is your position on whether President Clinton should pardon convicted spy Pollard, and would you do so?
Mr. BRADLEY: I don't think that issues of clemency should be a part of political campaigns because you need the information. That information comes from the clemency report, and quite frankly, I'm not going to make clemency issues a part of this campaign.
GIBSON: All right. One other from Sam in Washington, DC, and I'll hold your answer until after we take a commercial break. What is the one bill you wished you had proposed but didn't while in the Senate? Take a few minutes to think about that, and we'll be right back.
(Commercial break)
GIBSON: The question on the table with Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley, what bill do you wish you'd proposed, but didn't. You can make it voted for, if you want. Just whatever bill did you blow it on, I guess.
Mr. BRADLEY: No, no, I don't think that's the question. I think which bill would you like to have had your name attached to that it wasn't attached to.
GIBSON: OK.
Mr. BRADLEY: I mean, I voted for this bill, but I think the clean air act of 1990-1991 was really an important piece of work, and I think it affected the lives of all Americans, cleaned up our air, and I think that that was the bill that I would have been proud to have authored.
GIBSON: A bill with which Al Gore was very closely associated?
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, it was a bill actually that George Mitchell, who was the majority leader in the United States Senate, was the dominant player.
GIBSON: OK. You have a question for Bill?
SAWYER: OK. Actually, a question for Daisy Quinn from California, because you hadyou mentioned on your card that you noted the senator had said that he felt that religion was a private issue. Are you satisfied with that?
Ms. DAISY QUINN: Sure, but I'm just curious to know if you would expand it to other areas, like would your health condition be a private issue as well?
Mr. BRADLEY: No. My health issue's revealed publicly and it also has a full doctor report, not just on the condition, but on every aspect of my health. I had a physical examination a week ago, and it's fully revealed. No, I think on religion, I think that that is an extremely private matter for people. And you know different politicians handle it different ways, but from my standpoint, I prefer to draw that line and say no.
SAWYER: Last night on the Republican debates, a number of the candidates said that Jesus Christ was the philosopher with most influence for them. What do you think about their saying that, and whom would you choose?
Mr. BRADLEY: Well, Diane, I think that people are going to say whatever they feel and however they're comfortable talking about their religious faith or spiritual feelings. And so, I've chosen to do it my way. I would not pick one person, I mean one philosopher, one person, because we are all influenced by a lot of different forces. If I was going to pick the people most important in my life, I wouldn't pick philosophers, I would pick my parents, quite frankly. So, I'll kind of yield, not yield, to that attempt to identify with just one person.
SAWYER: But does itlistening to them do it, does it make you uncomfortable, do you think it's wrong?
Mr. BRADLEY: No, I think that every person has really got to grapple with this issue themselves, ideally, in terms of their personal faith. I think that every politician has to decide how much of themselves are they going to share with the American public. And they made their choice, I made my choice. I respect them for doing what they're doing, and I hope they respect me.
GIBSON: Thanks for coming. Senator Bill Bradley, we appreciate you being here. Thank you.
Mr. BRADLEY: I appreciate being here. Thank you.
GIBSON: We'll take a break, be back.
SAWYER: Thank you all, too.
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