BUSH VOWS TO INTENSIFY DRUG WAR Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush accused the Clinton-Gore administration Friday of firing blanks in the war against drugs and proposed to increase spending by $2.8 billion over five years to curb illegal drug use, particularly among teens. "Unfortunately, in the last 7 1/2 years, fighting drug abuse has ceased to be a national priority," Bush said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Drug policy has been pursued without urgency, without energy, and without meaningful success." Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore teamed up with his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, at an outdoor rally of several thousand people at Orlando, Fla. Gore focused on tax cuts again, saying his own are targeted to help the middle class, while Bush would give most of his proposed $1.3 trillion tax reduction to people who earn more than $1 million a year. "Those facts aren't fuzzy," Gore said. "Those facts are real. They may be inconvenient, but they're not fuzzy." In their debate Tuesday, Bush had accused Gore of using "fuzzy math." Tipper Gore dropped the line of the day when she told the crowd that the senator from Connecticut ought to be wearing a cape. "He was spectacular, he was amazing," Tipper Gore said. "Superman, Batman, Lieberman!" Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, acknowledged the praise and returned the favor. "We're happy to be together," Lieberman said. "When Al and Hadassah and Tipper and I are together, we call this double dating. And it's great to be on a double date in Orlando." Gore addressing the Florida crowd: "This state is the key to the election. And central Florida is the key to this state." Polls show the race between Gore and Bush is a statistical dead heat. Bush holds a substantial lead in north and southwest Florida, while Gore holds a big lead in southeast Florida. The key, both campaigns say, will be the Interstate 4 corridor running through Daytona Beach, Orlando, and Tampa. In Cedar Rapids, Bush spoke to about 150 people at a family resource center. He asserted that from 1979 to 1992, "our nation confronted drug abuse successfully. Teen drug use declined each and every year. It was one of the best public policy successes of the 1980s. "All that began to change 7 1/2 years ago. From 1992 to 1997, teen drug use increased each and every year. Heroin use doubled. The age at which people began using that drug dropped from 27 in 1988 to below 18 in 1997. This was one of the worst public policy failures of the 1990s." Bush proposed spending $25 million over five years to help nonprofit agencies assist parents in battling drug use by teenagers. In the same period, he would increase spending on drug-free schools by $100 million, double funding for community- and faith-based anti-drug programs to $350 million and provide $250 million for drug-treatment programs for teens. Bush also proposed spending an additional $1 billion over five years to treat people who are addicted to drugs and aren't receiving treatment, a category estimated at up to 3 million people. Most of the remaining money would go toward preventing drugs from entering the United States. "One of Mr. Clinton's first acts as president was to slash the staff of the drug office by 80 percent," Bush said. "The number of workers there went from 146 to 25 -- in other words, about half the size of the White House public relations operation. That says something about priorities." A spokesman for Gen. Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House drug policy office, said the Texas governor was using "ancient numbers." Spokesman Bob Weiner said the office initially lost staff when Clinton slashed overall White House employment, but that it now has 154 employees -- more than when President George Bush, the Republican candidate's father, left office in 1992. Bush acknowledged that teen drug use has "leveled off" the past two years. But he gave the Clinton administration no credit. Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Gore, said the administration has proposed the largest anti-drug budget to date, and noted that the Democratic presidential nominee already has proposed spending an additional $5.3 billion to crack down on drugs. "Once again, Gov. Bush has misfired in attacking the progress of the past eight years," Hattaway said. "And once again, Gov. Bush is playing follow-the-leader."
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