Presidential Elections - AP

In Florida, Kerry Tackles Health Care
37 minutes ago

By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused President Bush of breaking promises to senior citizens and called the prescription drug package approved by Congress a billion-dollar giveaway to drug companies as he campaigned Monday in health-conscious Florida.

"Our seniors deserve the best care America has to offer," Kerry said. "What they do not deserve is another four years of broken promises and failed policies from George W. Bush."

Speaking to about 500 people at a town-hall meeting, Kerry drew loud cheers when he declared, "I will never privatize Social Security."

The Massachusetts senator was courting the vast elderly population in Florida while sweeping across the politically crucial state. He repeatedly mentioned the disputed 2000 election, which decided the race for president between Bush and Al Gore, saying he is putting together a legal team to monitor voting and vote counting in Florida in November.

Kerry, who had stops in Hollywood and West Palm Beach before ending his day in Tampa, said 2.8 million people in Florida lack health care and 315,000 people pay more than they should for prescription drugs.

"We'll make sure that those without drug coverage aren't left out in the cold," he said. "I'm going to give you something that works and doesn't give the insurance companies millions of dollars."

As Kerry campaigned, his aides were speaking regularly by phone with former rivals John Edwards and Howard Dean. Kerry will meet with Dean in Washington on Wednesday, aides said, to discuss what role Dean can play in the campaign. Dean could be a valuable ally because of his huge Internet-based financial network.

Throughout a four-day Southern tour, Kerry has blamed Bush's trade policies for job losses. But he has continued to criticize Bush on national security issues, raising questions about the handling of probes into terrorist attacks as well as intelligence suggesting weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq.

"The American people deserve an answer now as to why we had intelligence failures and what the security needs of our nation are," Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Sunday. He accused Bush of "stonewalling" separate probes into those issues, pointing to complaints by members of a federal commission investigating the attacks that Bush was resisting their efforts to get documents and question witnesses.

"Why is this administration stonewalling and resisting the investigation into what happened and why we had the greatest security failure in the history of our country?" Kerry said.

"The American people deserve an answer now," he said. "The immediate instinct of the Republicans and this administration was to shut it down."

The Bush campaign rejected the charges out of hand. "This is another inaccurate attack by John Kerry," Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "Not a single person has refused to be interviewed," he said, and the administration has allowed "unprecedented access" for investigators.