Bush Discusses Medicare in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. AP) – President Bush celebrated final passage of the Medicare overhaul bill Tuesday while raising campaign money in Nevada, a state where Democrats are trying to cash in on his support for Yucca Mountain as the nation’s only nuclear waste repository.

At a hospital on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Bush met privately with health care workers and seniors, then told a public gathering that seniors will start seeing “real savings in health care costs” six months after he signs the bill.

“We inherited a good Medicare system,” Bush said. “It has worked but it was becoming old and needed help. Because of the actions of the Congress, the actions of members of both political parties, the Medicare system will be modern and it will be strong.”

Republicans are hoping Bush’s re-election prospects will get a boost from the overhaul of Medicare, a Great Society program that Democrats have long used to their political advantage.

But in Nevada, where Bush is visiting for the first time as president, Democrats are counting on voter anger over the Yucca Mountain issue to overcome any political benefit he might gain from Medicare.

Bush narrowly won Nevada’s four electoral votes in 2000 after promising that, if elected, he would use sound science to base any decision on locating the repository. That was interpreted in Nevada as a chance to stop the dump from going in at Yucca Mountain.

But Democrats contend he broke that promise when he signed legislation ending the decade-long drive to locate the nuclear waste dump at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

“Our memories are not so short that we can’t recall that four years ago, this candidate promised us one thing and delivered us the exact opposite,” former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller, a Democrat, said Monday.

“I encourage all Nevadans … to remember what you got. And what you got was a nuclear dump,” Miller said.

Bush had the first of two fund-raisers here Tuesday. He also planned similar Medicare and campaign events later in Phoenix, a scheduling strategy that allowed him to charge the taxpayers for part of the trip.

Republicans maintain that Yucca Mountain won’t hurt Bush because Nevada residents understand that Congress also approved the dump and there are many other issues on which to support the president.

“As Ronald Reagan used to say, if people agree with you 80 percent of the time they’re you’re friend, not your enemy,” GOP Gov. Kenny Guinn said.

Nevada has voted increasingly Democratic in recent presidential elections. Former President Clinton carried the state twice in three-way contests, and former Vice President Al Gore won 46 percent of the vote in 2000, the highest percentage for a Democratic presidential nominee since Harry Truman in 1948.

Redistricting has made Nevada an even more attractive prize for Democrats, since it now has five electoral votes.

Democrats say they’re also encouraged about their prospects in Arizona, the second stop on Bush’s fund-raising tour Tuesday. Bush won the state with just 51 percent of the vote in 2000, and Arizona last year elected its first Democratic governor in 20 years.

Arizona holds the first presidential primary in the West early next year, and Democratic presidential contenders have been flocking to the state. Bush had made four previous trips to Arizona since becoming president, but Tuesday’s event marked the first of his re-election campaign.

“He wants to make sure people will be able to hear his message directly,” Arizona Republican Party Chairman Bob Fannin said.

Enactment of the Medicare prescription drug benefit could help Bush in both states because of their sizable senior populations. Democrats have used spiraling prescription drugs prices as a major campaign issues in recent elections.

Bush’s appearances at the senior citizens centers in Las Vegas and Phoenix were scheduled last week when Congress was locked in a heated battle over the Medicare bill. Administration officials hoped a public push from the president would seal the deal.

But when the House approved the final bill in an all-night session Friday and the Senate voted Monday to end a filibuster of the legislation, Bush aides had to scramble to redefine the events.