These are highlights from the 2000 Gore-Bush debate #3, Oct. 17. Most are Bush quotes, but Gore and members of the audience are included for clarity.
HEALTH INSURANCE
MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: How do you feel about HMOs and insurance companies making the critical decisions that affect people's lives instead of the medical professionals, and why are the HMOs and insurance companies not held accountable for their decisions?
GORE: Mr. Hankins, I don't feel good about it, and I think we ought to have a patient's bill of rights to take the medical decisions away from the HMOs and give them back to the doctors and nurses. [edit]Doctors are giving prescriptions, they're recommending treatments, and then their recommendations are being overruled by HMOs and insurance companies. That is unacceptable. I support a strong national patient's bill of rights. It is actually a disagreement between us, a national law that is pending on this, the Dingle-Norwood bill, a bipartisan bill, is one that I support and that the governor does not.
BUSH: Actually, Mr. Vice President, it's not true. I do support a national patient's bill of rights. As a matter of fact, I brought Republicans and Democrats together to do just that in the State of Texas to get a patient's bill of rights through.
This was a complete lie. Bush argued against the Texas Patients Bill of Rights, and when it was passed in the TX legislature, Bush refused to sign it. Any bill not signed or vetoed automatically becomes law in TX. Then he has the nerve to claim credit for it?
NATIONAL DEBT
GORE: Now under my plan we'll balance the budget every year. I'm not just saying this. I'm not just talking. I have helped to balance the budget for the first time in 30 years, paid down the debt. And under my plan, in four years, as the percentage of our gross domestic product, federal spending will be the smallest that it has been in 50 years. One reason is, you know, the third biggest spending item in our budget is interest on the national debt? We get nothing for it. We keep the good faith and credit of the United States. I will pay down the debt every single year until it is eliminated early in the next decade. That gets rid of the third biggest intrusion of the federal government in our economy. Now, because the governor has all this money for a tax cut mostly to the wealthy, there is no money left over, so schools get testing and lawsuit reform and not much else.
MODERATOR: Governor, the vice president says you're wrong.
BUSH: Well, he's wrong. (LAUGHTER) Just add up all the numbers. It's three times bigger than what President Clinton proposed. The Senate Budget Committee --
MODERATOR: Three times -- excuse me, three times bigger than what President Clinton proposed?
GORE: That was in an ad, Jim, that was knocked down by the journalists who analyzed the ad and said it was misleading.
BUSH: My turn?
MODERATOR: Yes, sir.
BUSH: Forget the journalists. He proposed more than Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis combined. This is a big spender.
Aarrgh!!! Remember when everyone thought it was important to pay down the debt? I do. We almost had a sane man in the White House, someone who knew what was best for America was to balance the budget and get us out of debt. Bush's plan as he stated it, was to use the surplus for anything but paying down the debt. Gotta love the sheer audacity of Bush to say "forget the journalists." He was showing us who he really was.
MIDDLE EAST
MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: What would you make -- what would make you the best candidate in office during the Middle East crisis?
BUSH: I've been a leader. I've been a person who has to set a clear vision and convince people to follow. I've got a strategy for the Middle East.
Now we know what Bush's real strategy is for the Middle East, we want no part of it!
MILITARY
BUSH: The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we're going. The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well-defined. I'm concerned that we're overdeployed around the world. See, I think the mission has somewhat become fuzzy. Should I be fortunate enough to earn your confidence, the mission of the United States military will be to be prepared and ready to fight and win war.
Once Bush got into office, he even ignored his own advice. I think that makes him an equal opportunity ignorer.
ENCOURAGING YOUNG PEOPLE TO VOTE
BUSH: Tell you what I hear. A lot of people are sick and tired of the bitterness in Washington, D.C. and therefore they don't want any part of politics. They look at Washington and see people pointing fingers and casting blame and saying one thing and doing another. There's a lot of young folks saying, you know, why do I want to be involved with this mess? And what I think needs to happen in order to encourage the young to become involved is to shoot straight, is to set aside the partisan differences, and set an agenda that will make sense.
You'd think it would make his head hurt to say things like that, knowing now what he really believes, which is to destroy anyone who disagrees with him. Destroy their family, business, anything. Just destroy them.