Democrat John Kerry, angry he was denied a chance to cast a Senate vote on veterans’ benefits, lashed out at Republicans on Wednesday and condemned President Bush as the most divisive president in modern history.
Kerry had interrupted a Western campaign swing for an expected vote Tuesday on a proposal to increase health care funding for veterans, one of his signature issues, but Republican Senate leaders refused to hold the vote while Kerry was in town.
“These people are so petty, so sad, so political, all they could do was spend the whole day finding a way not to let John Kerry vote,” the Massachusetts senator told the annual convention of the Service Employees International Union.
At an earlier fund raiser, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told supporters the move was typical of a Republican attitude of “shut the door, lock people out, don’t let them take part in democracy, don’t respect the institution.”
Republicans had poisoned the political atmosphere in Washington, Kerry said, and he ridiculed Bush’s promises during the 2000 campaign to be a “uniter, not a divider.”
“He’s been the greatest divider as a president in the modern history of this country,” the Democratic presidential candidate said.
Republicans openly derided Kerry’s attempt Tuesday to jet back to Washington for the vote. Kerry has missed most of the Senate’s business this year while running for president.
“Senator Kerry, who hadn’t been here all year, who’s missed 80 percent of all votes this year, parachutes in for a day and then will be taking off once again,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, told reporters.
Bush re-election spokesman Steve Schmidt rejected Kerry’s charges and said he was now “delivering to the American people vitriolic attacks almost on an hourly basis.”
“John Kerry’s belief he was entitled to special treatment on the rare day he showed up was apparently not shared by his colleagues,” Schmidt said.
Touts health care plan
Kerry, who has taken at least a slight lead over Bush in most national polls, touted his health care plan during an appearance at the annual convention of the 1.4 million-member SEIU, which is dominated by health care workers.
He said rising health care costs were squeezing the middle class and pricing many families out of the health care market.
He promised to push for stronger patient rights and accused the Bush administration of having no solutions for a mounting health care crisis.
“This administration still has no plan to solve our health care crisis,” he said. “I do have a plan.”
He condemned Monday’s Supreme Court decision limiting patient lawsuits against their health maintenance organizations, saying it was “not a good day” for 140 million Americans who receive their medical care through HMO’s and that it “underscored the hypocrisy of this administration.’
He called again for Congress to preserve patients’ rights to sue their HMO’s with a bill similar to one passed by the House and Senate three years ago. That measure died when the two chambers could not work out their differences.
Kerry’s $650 billion 10-year plan, financed partially by repealing Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, would give families the opportunity to buy into the same health plan provided members of Congress and offer tax credits to help people and employers lower health care costs.
It would push states to expand Medicaid and child care health plans and allow patients to purchase cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.
Kerry targeted his remarks to the SEIU, which backed Kerry’s rival Howard Dean during the Democratic primaries but has enthusiastically embraced the Massachusetts senator and promised a strong grass roots organizing effort on his behalf in November.