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."