Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
October 5, 1999, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 1150 words
HEADLINE:
Gore Campaign, Clinton Policy: An Uneasy Search for Balance
BYLINE: John F. Harris, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
In New Hampshire and Iowa, nursing
home groups lately have been running ads chiding Vice President Gore to commit
to increasing reimbursements under Medicare. Yesterday, Gore made clear he has
heard the message.
Staking out a position out in front of President
Clinton's, Gore said he favors immediately rewriting the 1997 balanced-budget
accord to ensure that rural hospitals, teaching hospitals and nursing homes get
the money they have been clamoring for.
Gore's new stance, a carefully
orchestrated move that he unveiled in Boston--not coincidentally, the home of
many teaching hospitals--was the latest instance of him trying to make plain to
voters that Clinton's policy priorities are not necessarily his own.
It
was also the latest illustration that even relatively obscure policy issues this
year have become freighted with heavy political consequences--confronting both
Gore and Clinton with awkward challenges in coordinating their policy messages.
Over recent months, the West Wing and the vice president's office team
have maneuvered--sometimes at cross-purposes with one another--to stake out
politically acceptable positions for Gore on such issues as agricultural relief,
veterans spending and encryption technology. None of these are issues that
remained long on the front pages or the network news; all are issues of acute
concern to key Gore constituencies.
Gore has won some of the
increasingly frequent internal policy tussles. His staff persuaded White House
Chief of Staff John D. Podesta to intervene with budget director Jacob J. Lew to
ensure more money for the Veterans Affairs Department after Gore complained that
veterans groups were hammering him on the issue, according to sources familiar
with the debate.
But the vice president has lost plenty of times as
well. Gore last month personally boasted to environmental groups that the
administration would stand firm against attempts by congressional Republicans to
weaken environmental laws through amendments to annual spending bills. Despite
that pledge, White House sources said Clinton is prepared to ignore Gore's veto
recommendation on a pending transportation bill that would strip the federal
government's authority to dictate fuel-efficiency standards for
light trucks, including sport-utility vehicles.
Even when their
positions are at odds, it has become clear in recent weeks that Gore's operation
and Clinton's are working in concert more effectively to accommodate the vice
president's ambitions--either by shifting policy to his purposes, or letting
Gore stake positions different than Clinton's. As recently as a few months ago,
stubbed toes were commonplace as Gore focused on 2000, to the resentment of some
Clinton aides.
Gore's effort to position himself on Medicare is a good
example of the more accommodating approach. The Clinton position is that
teaching hospitals and nursing homes need help, but that any fixes should come
as part of a broader overhaul of the entitlement program. As a practical matter,
White House aides said, officials at the Health and Human Services Department
are skeptical that nursing homes deserve a more generous reimbursement rate, and
officials at the Office of Management and Budget warn that there is little money
for this, in any event.
Meanwhile, Gore was feeling the heat. Exploiting
the political calendar, the American Health Care Association and other groups
ran ads last month saying, "Al Gore should use his influence to make the Clinton
administration restore vital Medicare funding for nursing home patients."
In recent days, White House officials said, Gore's team let Clinton's
know that he needed protection on the issue. Clinton aides learned in advance
that Gore was going to use an appearance yesterday morning at the Boston Globe
to get out in front of Clinton. Gore's new stance, according to aides, is that
reimbursement rates for hospitals and nursing homes must be fixed this
fall--even if Clinton and Republicans cannot agree on a comprehensive Medicare
overhaul.
At times recently, Clinton aides have even helped Gore come up
with policy proposals that are at odds in places with Clinton's. White House
national economic adviser Gene Sperling, sources said, helped Gore fashion a
tax-cut package last July that ignores some of the provisions that Sperling
helped Clinton draft several months earlier.
The assistance underlines a
paradox of Gore's campaign. Even as he is increasingly trying to establish his
own identity--distancing himself from some policies and expressly criticizing
Clinton's personal behavior--Gore is also hoping to take full benefit of
Clinton's willingness to tilt policy his way at well-timed moments.
Recent weeks have offered a flurry of examples. Gore aides sighed with
relief when Clinton approved a change in rules regarding the export of
sophisticated encryption technology, which can cloak electronic communications
in ways that cannot be broken.
The old policy had put Gore at odds with
the high-technology industry--a constituency whose support the vice president
has been devoutly seeking. Although Gore backed the change in export rules,
senior White House officials said that it was the softening of opposition by
national security officials, rather than a wish to help Gore, that proved
decisive.
Similarly, the administration last month resolved a
longstanding trade dispute over the manufacture and sale of more affordable AIDS
drugs in South Africa. Gay activists as well as South Africa supporters had
roasted Gore over the issue. U.S. trade officials resolved the issue, with a
compromise that allows South Africa to make cheaper versions of U.S.-developed
drugs, just days before Gore was to meet with South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
White House officials said Podesta has been critical in ensuring
that administration officials take Gore's interests into account--on such issues
as emergency relief for farmers and limiting high-tech companies' liability for
Y2K problems.
Gore advisers are appreciative--to a degree. The $ 7.4
billion farm relief bill Clinton signed helped the vice president in Iowa but it
was still $ 3 billion less than what Gore had publicly called for. And some Gore
advisers fretted that a Podesta-brokered deal over Y2K liability gave too much
to computer companies at the expense of another constituency he is courting:
trial lawyers.
Podesta said consultation is what he seeks, rather than
perfect consensus between Clinton and Gore. Increasingly, Gore domestic policy
adviser David Beier is a presence at West Wing debates. "We're in a phase when
we're determined to have good coordination," Podesta said. "We've tried to
ensure that the vice president is represented in all the critical meetings."
Not always eye to eye: Vice President Gore tries to change some Clinton
policies and distance himself from others.
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