Point-Counterpoint

The Charge: Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton says President Bush’s budget would gut Medicare benefits, making “elderly people and their children pay more for basic health care.” Bush’s budget, Clinton charges, would give a large new tax break to millionaires while costing the average elderly American $400 a year more in medical bills. Clinton bases his charges on a series of budget options the Administration published earlier this year.

The Response: Clayton K. Yeutter, Bush’s deputy campaign chairman, accused Clinton of trying to “scare seniors.” The Democrat, he said, was indulging in “his favorite tactics--fear-mongering and pandering.” The Administration’s budget director, Richard G. Darman, has said earlier that the budget options on Medicare do not represent formal Bush proposals.

The Analysis: It is true that Bush has not formally proposed cuts in Medicare benefits. Still, the debate on this issue catches the President in an awkward straddle. He has proposed three massive budget cuts--an overall cap on so-called entitlement spending programs, such as Medicare, an across-the-board tax cut paid for by spending cuts, and an income tax checkoff to reduce the deficit, also paid for by spending cuts. While pushing these proposals, though, he has not put forward any specifics. He also has suggested cutting capital gains taxes, which would, for the most part, directly benefit wealthy taxpayers. To defend itself against charges that it lacked any specific budget plan, the Administration in July published the list of possible budget cuts that Clinton has now attacked. That list does include several major cuts in Medicare, which would raise costs to elderly Americans. Bush aides insist the cuts were just illustrations, not proposals. Clinton aides argue that so long as Bush has put forward no other suggestions on how he would pay for his programs, he should have to be held to account for the ideas his Administration has put forward. Clinton himself has said he would consider raising taxes on wealthy Medicare recipients as part of an overall reform of the health care system but opposes proposals to cut Medicare benefits.