The Exchange; Interview with Al Gore

From New Hampshire Public Radio I'm Jill Kaufman. This is the exchange. The vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore is our guest today. The Tennessee native is in a tight race against Bill Bradley for the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. Now just three months away. Voters in the state are almost split on who would do a better job as president when the vice president was in the U.S. Senate. He built much of his reputation on environmental ideas like the threat of global warming and cleaning up Superfund sites. As vice president he's continued to champion high technology and Internet development in a second term that is marred by scandal and impeachment hearings. Al Gore is trying to make it clear he stands on his own path and he hopes that path will now lead him to the Oval Office. At a town hall meeting in Hanover last week he explained how he sees the president's role. I think that a leader and especially a president has to articulate clear goals. That are achievable. Rank them in priority order and rally people around those goals.

Al Gore has the next hour to do so on the exchange and this is your chance to talk to the candidate. Join us at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 8 hundred 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 or 2 2 4 8 9 8 9 in Concord that's 2 2 4 8 9 8 9. Mr. Vice President welcome to the Exchange. Good morning Joe and good morning to all your listeners. And they are out there today. The phones are lit up. You're sweet to fill in for for Laura. Laura and I want to wish the best to her and young Isaiah Jammal and her doing don't. Yeah. I want to talk about some of those goals that you mentioned at the Hanover town meeting. What are those achievable goals and how would you prioritize them. I think we have to keep our economy growing strongly in ways that generate a lot more jobs and leave no one behind. I think we have to expand access to health care until eventually we cover every single American. I think we ought to start by covering every child with fully affordable health insurance within the next four years. And of course health care has emerged as a

as the first major issue in dispute in this campaign perhaps we'll have a chance to talk more about that. I want to clean up the environment our air and our water clean up the dump sites and provide leadership on issues like global warming so that the U.S. can can take a leadership role around the world. I want to enact meaningful and tough campaign finance reform. I want to get guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them. I believe that we we have to to make sure that the social safety net works. I'm strongly against canceling Medicaid or undermining Medicare. I believe we have to close the skills gap and provide opportunity for all Americans even as we insist that they accept responsibility in return. So in enacting welfare reform which I think is a successful policy we have to continue providing the intensive help for those families that are making the transition out of permanent poverty into the workforce

with child care and after school care. And the other the other forms of assistance that can help them really make that transition successfully. And the number one investment in the future must be to bring about revolutionary improvements in public education. I have always opposed vouchers because I think they drain money away from limited public school budgets. But I think that we now have to shift gears and get out of the gradual improvement phase if you will and and bring about revolutionary improvements and listen to teachers and treat them like professionals. Let's talk further about that topic because it's also number one among voters in New Hampshire and among voters around the U.S.. You've called on the House and the Senate to approve the money necessary to put more teachers in classrooms to make smaller class sizes as well. Is that enough.

No it's not enough. I think that's one of the keys. There was a young student at my open meeting in Derry last night. Actually several of them who spoke up about how important it is to give teachers the time to spend with individual students. And this one young man in the sixth grade said that his teacher had 30 two students in his classroom and that when he had a question at the end of class he felt guilty about asking for extra help because the teacher in his words was frustrated with all of the students. And so so reducing the size of each class is important but we also need more teacher training professional development opportunities. I favor tough new teacher testing for new teachers including in the subjects that they teach. Peer evaluation on a regular basis for existing teachers. I think we've got to have school reforms that emphasize accountability and measurement of performance and I've put out a

comprehensive education plan. Al Gore 2000 dot.com. And one of the nice things about public radio is you can look at the Internet while you're listening matters. I know that there are many good ideas coming out of Washington coming out of the Education Department as well. These these are coming at the federal level sometimes they are mandates sometimes they're suggestions. But federal funding itself only makes up a small percentage of the money that's going into schools so states as in New Hampshire and you show you where the situation here in terms of education funding. States are footing the bill for mandates coming from Washington. Can Washington do anything more or should even Washington do anything more in terms of federal funding for schools. Our national government can and should do more. I'll give you a specific example. We have a national requirement that goes back 25 years for special education for special needs children. I favor that. But the federal government cannot simply put a mandate on

states without helping them meet that mandate. And I've called for a tripling of the largest increase ever in special education funding which of course would help not only New Hampshire but all 50 states. I think the federal share should be increased but I think the federal government can play a role beyond what's implied by the five to 10 percent funding it provides. Let me give you an example. Five years ago I went to Los Angeles and made a speech articulating the goal of connecting every classroom and library to the Internet with appropriate filters and teacher training. At the time people said that's unrealistic but the goal resonated with people all over the country who had volunteer net days and companies contributed computers and wiring and communications workers contributed time to connect the classrooms and now we're going to be close to reaching that goal.

The federal government has provided about $2 billion a year through the e-rate which Republicans tried to label the Gore tax. I welcomed them and try to give me credit for it. But it really isn't a tax. But the point I'm making is the federal government's funding share was relatively small but by articulating a goal that was supported on its own merits by local and state governments and private businesses and civic groups we were able to mobilize the country to reach that goal. And I think we can do the same thing with smaller class sizes with preschool with a better approach to individualized lesson plans without bureaucracy which will help with special education. These and other goals can be met and must be based on a national basis for three quick reasons. Number one we have the largest generation of students in history the under 18 generation has just passed by the baby boomers and they've crowded the schools more than the baby boomers did. Second like

we're in an information age when 60 percent of the businesses in America have positions that are good jobs that they can't fill because they can't find enough people with the education to take on the training and New Hampshire has the highest percentage of high technology jobs of any state. Third and finally families are under more stress today. There has been a quadrupling of single parent households and God bless them they're doing a great job but they're often exhausted. And that's why we need programs like after school care and efforts by schools to try to help families balance work and family and get them more involved in school. You also speak about business partnerships being primarily important to the future of education funding as well. How as President can you rally in a corporate corporate America into thinking about schools and it's happening already but how what more can you do. Well by pointing out that business now spends more money each year on remedial education in their workforce then the country spends

to do the job right the first time around. So they see the cause and effect if they see the cause and effect between what what is coming out of a public school and there's not a word there's an old saying in business if you don't have if you don't have the time to do the job right the first time around how are you going to find time to go back and do it over. It's in the interest of the business community for the U.S. to have the best educated population in the world. And yet today we rank 18th out of 18 nations surveyed in 12th grade math and the future of competition around the world puts a premium on the ability to handle technology sophisticated computers and we have a national interest in doing this right the first time around. Before we go to calls Mr. Vice President I want to step back for a minute. More than 10 years ago you ran for president in the primary against Michael Dukakis and so much has changed in those 10 years in terms of global politics and how we access information and the economy.

I wonder in the past decade plus what difference it's made to you as a candidate again. Well I pledged in 1988 that if I ever ran for president again I would run as an older candidate. Well you have. To follow through on that right. I've followed through faithfully and I think we all learned a great deal. As we age and reach new stages in life. Certainly I have. I've served eight years in the House of Representatives eight years in the Senate and a very full seven years as vice president and I've seen a lot of things that could go wrong in this country. I thought at one time in my life Jill that politics would be the absolute last thing I ever did when I came back from Vietnam. I had seen my father defeated for standing on principle supporting civil rights and opposing the Vietnam War. I saw the pressures of that war pull our country nearly apart. And then when I came

home I saw Watergate unfold with with the horrible demonstration of corruption and worse at the highest levels of government. And I thought politics would be the last thing I ever did. I became a journalist I was a journalist for seven years. And after a couple of promotions and covering city hall in Nashville Tennessee after Tipper and I had started our family I began to see how men and women from every walk of life would come in and roll up their sleeves and make decisions that made a big difference in the quality of life in the community and I was drawn toward it. I saw what needed to be done and felt I could make a contribution. I ran for Congress and I was thrilled at having open meetings like the one like the ones I've been having here in New Hampshire too to see how our democracy could be made to work well. And I really enjoyed that a lot. And after that the time that I have served in public service I see a lot of challenges like health care education the

economy the environment. And I know what a difference it can make to make these decisions. Well to involve people to bring people back into the process to restore the confidence that we need to make self-government operate the way it's supposed to. And right now at the edge of a new century and a new era I think we have an opportunity to make this country the way it's supposed to be. And I'm enjoying going around New Hampshire talking with people about their ideas on how we can do that. This is the exchange from New Hampshire Public Radio. Vice President Al Gore is our guest today. He's in a neck and neck race against Bill Bradley in the New Hampshire primary. We're talking about his quest to be president. Exchange listeners why are you supporting Al Gore. Why not. And what questions might you have to ask him about what he would do as president. Join us at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 8 8 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. In Concord the number is 2 2 4 8 9 8 9. Mary and Guilford on the Exchange thanks for calling in.

Health care is actually my primary concern but today I'd like to comment that I think we have a responsibility to pay our national debt before we start thinking about any tax rebates especially when we have the money now because this is the first time we had a balanced budget. My memory won't it cost more if we delay payment. And how will that reflect on our Social Security in the future. That that's a great question. We have now changed the biggest deficits in history into the biggest surpluses in history. After six and a half years. And that does indeed have many benefits for us it helps to keep interest rates low. It helps to draw investment capital toward New Hampshire and the rest of the country and create 20 million new jobs and actually over the last two years we have reduced the national debt by a total of

170 billion dollars. Now just to show directly how that is relevant to this year's budget remember we have to pay interest on the national debt. And since the national debt is $170 billion lower this year than two years ago the interest payments we pay this year are $19 billion less than they were two years ago. That's 19 billion dollars that we can use for other things. We have to reserve over the next 10 years just to jot down a couple of numbers that the total surplus for the next 10 years is almost $3 trillion now projected 2.8 trillion. Social Security will require 1.8 trillion of that surplus. Now what happens to the other one trillion dollars in the non-Social Security surplus. The reason that your first mentioned topic health care color has become such a controversial issue in this campaign is that Bill

Bradley has put out a health care plan that by his own numbers uses that entire trillion dollar surplus when actually at least 15 to 20 percent of it has to be saved to fix Medicare. And if we don't save that for Medicare then Medicare is in jeopardy. And I strongly disagree with that putting Medicare in jeopardy. And I think that we have to use that surplus to not only fix Medicare but to make some investments in education and to clean up the environment and to pay down the debt further. I'd like to completely pay off the national debt and that would give us more resources for progressive change in this country. Maria thanks for calling in. Let's continue to talk about health care and health insurance. You have a very strong proposal you've put out a detailed saying that by the year 2005 you hope that every hope to have every child being able to afford insurance. He proposed States could expand the eligibility for something that's called the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The problem that the critics of this see so far is that as it stands right now there are some 4 million kids who are already eligible for Medicaid who are not enrolled. So first how are you how will this plan even address getting the coverage to children and to families. Well it is a bold plan. It will be the largest investment in health care since Medicare and Medicaid. I want to eventually get coverage for every American but I want to start by making sure that every single child in this country has full coverage of health care. And then I want to continue by making sure that the parents of many of those children those earning up to 250 percent of the poverty level are also covered in the same plan so that the families are kept whole and covered with the same treated by the same doctor it makes sense in a lot of ways then I target incentives on small businesses that have a third of the workforce but half of the uninsured workforce. And if they join purchasing cooperatives and get lower rates for their employer insurance

they would get a 25 percent tax incentive for each employee covered. And individuals who don't get health insurance at work would get a 25 percent tax incentive given in a way that does not encourage employers to drop their employee coverage. Finally we've got to pass the Employee. I mean excuse me the health care patients bill of rights and curb these HMO and insurance company abuses now covering children does require much more aggressive outreach. I was just I was in a daycare center yesterday partly to show the kinds of places where the outreach would occur. We've got to go into the daycare centers into the doctor's offices into the schools into the community centers and aggressively sign up all of the children that are eligible. It can be done. And I'm determined to to see that we get every child in America. And let's get back to how this is going to be paid for. Again I know the surplus is out there

too. To be used in part but how can this be paid for and is it too expensive a plan. No it's not. I've put out a financing plan. Again the details are at Al Gore 2000 dotcom. I feel a little bit like Ross Perot hawking a 1 800 number here. But the Internet's a great source of information. And on the Internet at Al Gore 2000 dot.com you'll find this chart that I'm holding up for you here in the studio. That shows how every proposal that I've made is costed and fit within a balanced budget. The cost of this health care plan will be 146 billion dollars over 10 years. The prescription drug benefit that I think Medicare ought to provide to those eligible for Medicare will cost an additional $118 billion over 10 years. And I have carved out room in the balanced budget for that. Now again the controversy in the campaign these days is about the

Bradley proposal that costs a trillion dollars and cancels Medicaid. There are 40 million low income Americans who depend on Medicaid. There are 7 million disabled Americans who have negotiated with Congress to get good benefits under Medicaid. That would be eliminated under the Bradley plan federal nursing home standards would be eliminated under the Bradley plan. Now he just put a cap on. I mean Friday night after the joint town hall meeting in New Hampshire in Hanover without announcing it to the press they went in and changed the the plant and put a cap of $8500 per premium and $5000 per family which means that more than 95 percent of the people pushed off Medicaid under the Bradley plan would really be hit hard. They would have to spend 15 20 even larger percentages of their annual income to replace the health care coverage that they now

get without spending that extra money. It would really hit hard at the low income Americans who can least afford an additional healthcare tax. Let's let the listeners respond to this. At this point vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore is our guest today. Join us at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. If you're in Concord the number is 2 2 4 8 9 8 9. Jerry in Nashville you're on the exchange. Thanks for calling in. Thank you for taking my call. Hello. Hi Jerry. I'm a cancer survivor in 1994. I hope to go home and die. I learned a great deal about that. But today many patients are dying because of the insurance coverage. Yeah. Yeah. And I have a follow up because how do we avoid that. We can't let people die because of their current coverage. I agree. I agree Jerry and God bless you. I'm glad you're doing so well and I enjoyed my recent open meeting in Nashua. I've strongly proposed a passage of an HMO patients bill of rights that gives you

access to specialists and does and disallows the current practice of having these young accountants who don't have a license to practice medicine and don't have a right to play God. Overrule the doctor's prescriptions and overrule the the recommendations of doctors. This is just completely unacceptable. Beyond that Jerry on the Web site and I want to talk it again but you'll also find a cancer a plan that quintuple the number of clinical trials. You know Joe right now the great success in fighting cancer is not with adults but with children. Over the last 10 15 years we've made dramatic gains. And one reason is that most children are put into clinical trials where the exciting new experimental therapies that the doctors have a hunch are the best for an individual case can be tried out and there are a lot of them are working and the survival rate has gone way up. But most

adults do not have access to clinical trials. And I want to change that. Are you proposing more funding for cancer research then. Yes. A doubling of cancer research funding on our NIH we've actually increased it pretty significantly in this current administration. But but I think that it makes sense to do more because we're just on the verge of completing the so-called human genome the completion of the genetic blueprint of human kind something that was just in science fiction a decade ago but now we were we're close to doing it. And as we do it we will find exciting new cures for a lot of diseases. You know some of the greatest wars like World War II were won when the enemy's secret codes were broken. We're now close to breaking cancers secret code in the DNA. And so now's the time to push harder to find the cures that will save so many lives that half a million

there are more there are more Americans killed by cancer each year than the total number of Americans who killed who were died and who died in all of World War II. We need to mobilize to fight this enemy. Mr. Vice President we're going to take a very short break. We're talking with vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore everything from taxes to education to foreign policy to philosophy we'd like to hear from you on this. Join the conversation at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 8 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 and conquer the number is 2 2 4 8 9 8 9 more of your questions and comments coming up when we get back from this break. You're listening to the exchange from New Hampshire Public Radio. Tomorrow on the exchange the uninsured in America. Join us tomorrow for the exchange. Support for the exchange comes from our contributing listeners. And from first six bank building relationships with neighbors local businesses and communities. Since

1847 first six bank with nine offices in New Hampshire and information available at 1 800 5 5 2 2 6 6 9. More School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire offering part time MBA programs starting December in Durham and starting January in Manchester 8 6 to 13 67. And the adolescent treatment program at the Cheshire Medical Center and their focus program offering inpatient and intensive day treatment services for adolescents and their families. This is the exchange from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm Joe Kauffmann Vice President Al Gore is our guest today. He's running against Bill Bradley in the Democratic New Hampshire primary exchange listeners join us at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 or 2 2 4 8 9 8 9 in Concord. That's 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 or 2 2 4 8 9 8 9 in concord if Vice President Al Gore becomes president Al Gore what's your first priority for him and what's your second. Join us on the Exchange this morning

Vice President. What. What prepares you and your background to become president of the United States. Well I've traveled this country quite a bit. I've had thousands of open meetings with people who've who've told me of their hopes and dreams for this country. I've served eight years and in the Congress eight years in the Senate and seven years as vice president. Before that I was a journalist before that I was a Vietnam veteran. My wife Tipper and I have four children. We've been we've been married for 29 years. 30 years next spring we have three girls and a boy. Our youngest is now a junior in high school our oldest just made us grandparents for the first time. Our grandson Wyatt Gore Schiff was born on the Fourth of July. How appropriate. He had impeccable timing and I just spent another couple hours with him night

before last and I am learning the joys of Grandfather hood. Your oldest daughter Corinna is involved somewhat in your campaign is very much is her whole family. Of course Tipper is is very much involved. She's in Iowa this morning. She was in Cedar Rapids last night and she's on a she's on a three day swing in Iowa right now. She'll be back here in New Hampshire very soon. The other children. We've always kept our children insulated from politics as much as possible. Our oldest daughter is now 26 and she made the decision on her own that she wanted to get involved and and help my campaign. And she's she's terrific I'm very proud of her. My mother is just turned 87. We lost my father last December. I like to tell you short story about my mother OK. She was born in a very poor family in west Tennessee at

a time when poor girls were not supposed to dream but she dreamed of equality between men and women and worked hard to try to create it she worked her way through college and took her blind sister and family to college with it read lessons and took notes for both of them. She she asked the Rotary Club for a loan and took the bus to Nashville and got a room at the YWCA and worked as a waitress in an all night coffee shop for 25 cent tips and became one of the first women in history to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School started practicing oil and gas law and divorce law at a time when that was almost unheard of for a woman attorney of which there were precious few. And my sister and I when we were growing up learned the lesson that women and men are clearly equal if not more so. And she met my dad. He was a teacher going to night law school at the YMCA and tanking up on coffee for the drive back out to the country and he became a member of the House and Senate when I was a kid.

He was he was in the Senate and he was a hero to me because he he was a man of great courage and conviction and fought for civil rights and progressive causes and actually sacrificed his seat in the Senate on principle. Well your mother sounds like a very strong role model for for your father as well as for yours. You into the rest of your family. That is correct. Join us on the exchange today at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 or 2 2 4 8 9 8 9. If you're in Concord vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore is our guest today. Rob in Manchester you're on the exchange. Thanks for calling in Bob. Thank you for taking my call. I am a firm believer that the way in which we conduct a primary has a significant impact or sets the tone for the general election. After 12 years of being in the inner circle of the presidency both as a candidate and the vice president I'm just wondering why it seems that your organization is running a bit of a negative campaign.

First of all Rob we're not and you know I'm going to defend Medicare and I'm going to defend Medicaid and there's nothing negative about talking about the the issues if we can't talk about issues then what are campaigns for. You know if a Republican had proposed eliminating Medicaid and considering an increase in the retirement age under Social Security and Medicare from 65 to 70 and eating up all of the surplus without saving Medicare. If a Republican had proposed those things you and I and every Democrat in the country would be up in arms if a Democrat proposes those things. I'm going to defend the 40 million low income Americans who who need Medicaid the seniors who depend on Medicare those who are looking forward to retiring at 65 instead of waiting until 70. And let me say

one other thing Rob. I like Bill Bradley. He's a friend I've served with him in the Senate. He served in Congress for longer than than I did. We had a chance occasionally to work together on issues. And I agree with you that the tone in the primary can set the stage for the party's victory in the general. And that's why I've suggested weekly debates on a different issue each week. I think that would be the best way to really dig in to the issues and the substance of this campaign. But Senator Bradley has has refused to accept weekly debates. In fact he he would only do that town hall meeting and he won't debate until Friday Night Before Christmas is 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and you know I think that we ought to do it differently. I don't agree with Rob. Is there something specific that you might point to so that the vice president knows knows more from you. It just seems like we pick up the papers after any sort of incident and it's not obviously the vice president himself as much as the people in the organization

just putting down the opponent putting down the other side without building up their own ideas. OK well fair enough and thanks for calling in today. Thank you Mr. Vice President you're in Bill Bradley's voting record in Congress. We're not hugely different I'm sure there are there are there are definitely differences but one question that lingers out there is how voters can differentiate between you and Bill Bradley if you can lay out some specific examples and it might be a philosophical difference. Well yeah. Well there is a difference. It's true that on many things we have had the same kinds of views. But I will not hesitate to point out differences on the issues. And let me give you a few. He supported the Reagonomics budget cuts in 1981 which slashed every healthcare every federal health care program by 25 percent. I fought strongly against those budget cuts. He has strongly he has supported vouchers which I think drain money away

from public schools unfairly. And the Republicans when they propose vouchers they always call it an experiment. But for 18 years every single time vouchers came up for a vote. Senator Bradley Bradley supported vouchers. I don't know of a single vote where he voted the other way. And I think that's I think that's a mistake. He supported the Contras which I thought was a mistaken policy. And of course he proposed to considering raising the retirement age from 65 to 70 which I think has some support in some circles. People say my life spans are increasing. We have to adjust to that. And I understand the sentiment but but what they miss in my opinion is that a lot of people work in hard jobs waitressing is hard on your body construction work other physical labor jobs and

factories and there's still a lot of such jobs and and people who get to the age of 65 feel worn out sometimes and don't want to wait another five years to get Medicare or to get Social Security. And those are some of the differences there are others of course but those are some of them. Did you expect Bill Bradley to gain such credibility so early in this race. Do you expect the race that you have on your hands now. You know I thought that if it did become a two person race with nobody else in the race and he crossed the threshold of of credibility that it was inevitable it would tighten to a close race. Sort of like Pepsi and Coke Coke life. There are only two alternatives. It is going to tie in but he's done a good job. And I give him credit. And you know what I would have I'll be candid in saying that I would have preferred to run unopposed. I've run both ways and I wouldn't and I prefer both.

But in spite of my preferences I have to tell you it has been a great blessing in disguise for me and a blessing for Democrats of course to have a a close hard fought race. I'm behind in New Hampshire now. I'm campaigning like the underdog. And I have to catch up. And that's helped me to break away from thinking like a vice president and thinking like a automatic winner. Well I don't think that I ever really let myself do that. But I did you know after seven years as vice president I'll be very candid with you. When you take an oath as vice president you incur an obligation to to to serve the country by helping the president be the best he can he can be. What that means is that when I'm on a program like this one as vice president and Rob calls from Manchester or Jerry calls from Nashua or Jill in the studio poses a

question I have to do a split second internal vetting to make sure that my own spontaneous instinct on the answer is going to be reconciled with whatever the administration's policy is what how is this going to help the president's goals. And I think that's you know that's good for a vice president. But it's but it hampers the ability of somebody running for president as I'm doing to establish a direct and clear line of communication with the people of New Hampshire people of our country. And I've made a shift I'm I'm concentrating on I'm running for president in my own right. And if that means that it ruffled some feathers in my role as vice president then so be it. Because this this decision on who's going to be the next president is crucial to our future. And I'm going to do my best to lay out a vision of the future that's compelling enough that I hope people will support it and vote for me in the New Hampshire primary.

Well let's stay at the White House for a moment more and then we'll get back to color. You did remain a loyal vice president to President Clinton during the impeachment hearings that you speak about being him bringing a moral leadership into the White House. How will you do that and also how will you separate yourself an image from the current administration if you need to. Well the President's my friend and I felt the same disappointment and anger that most everybody else did at his personal mistake. He and I have fought on the same side on these issues with some good success in turning the economy around here in New Hampshire. Just think back what it was like seven years ago the worst since the 1930s. Now it's the strongest economy in history. Crime's gone down seven years in a row. Twenty million new jobs. We've won a lot of those fights. We've balanced the budget and built the biggest surpluses in history. But now I'm running on my own. I have to I have to do this myself and I'm establishing my own

relationship and dialogue with the American people and presenting my own vision of the future and asking people to support it. Let's continue that dialogue with the American people at least the ones in New Hampshire at the moment. Vice president a Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore is our guest today. And you can join us at 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 and conquer the number is 2 2 4 8 9 8 9. Brian in Laconia. You're on the exchange. Thanks for calling in Brian. Hi Mr. Gore hi hi. How are you doing. I'm doing great. I'm going to have an oh I'm going to be in Laconia over the weekend. Well welcome to our town. Thank you. I have. When you made your opening remarks it kind of piqued my interest a little because you said that you were interested in increasing our commitment to education. Yes but at the same time though I have to say that you know your administration is increasing the defense department more at peace building prisons et cetera. And that just seems to me that you know there's a question of priorities here. And I think that we would have plenty of money for education if we just spent it in the right place. I'd

I'd like to hear your commentary about that. Well I think it's a thoughtful comment that you've made Brian and I think in the aftermath of the Cold War we do have to re-examine our defense posture and our national security policy. I've always supported a strong national defense. I don't think that anybody doesn't support that. I know and I'm not trying to paint you into that corner but I'm laying a predicate for what I'm about to say now. I think that with the disappearance of the communist bloc we see new threats emerging such as terrorism and rogue nations. Nations like Iran trying to assemble a force of ballistic missiles and develop nuclear weapons. And I think that when the survival of the nation is potentially at stake we have to take some of these threats that come from the spread of weapons of mass destruction very very seriously. And when we can prevent and forestall

conflicts in areas that affect our national security we have to be able to do so. I do think we need to re-examine the way we posture our military. But I think that we need to do it carefully and make sure that that we have the forces to do the job that we sometimes have to have to do. If you want to pursue it right. Well it just seems to me that you know back in the cold war era we had this monolith with this huge military establishment which you know arguably could have justified that. As I recall it was around 280 billion a year for the budget. But right now there were no credible threats except you know something you know strange happening like computer failure in Russian computers or something like that. But I mean I don't see any any countries who are ready to attack us and to the extent that they were there you know nations have seen could be dealt with with you know projecting our power on them prior to anything

happening rather easily. You know I mean you know we have a good intelligence network we have excellent you know military assets et cetera. You know just say for example some country I don't know Armenia was you know for example was threatening to attack us. And I think that we could take care of that rather handily. And when I look at the amounts of money that we're spending presently on what seems to me what threats you know may exist it just seems to me like way out of proportion. Well let's take the example of Armenia. Armenia has a border with Iran. Nuclear reactors can be used as a source of material that when enriched can accelerate to the development of nuclear weapons they match those with ballistic missiles. The technology for which they're are trying to get from other countries and all of a sudden we could face in 10 years 15 years a

serious problem. I agree with you that the world is in some ways a much less dangerous place after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But I think it's risky for us to let down our guard too much. I really do and I think that some limited means of protecting ourselves against ballistic missiles ought to be developed. I think that aggressive diplomacy is justified. And incidentally I think that it was breathtakingly reckless for the Republican Senate to defeat the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty without even having any hearings on it and to refuse to pay our United Nations dues even though we stand to lose our vote in the general assembly. I don't know what they're thinking down there. It's just it's so blindly partisan. It really does hurt our country's national interests and I think that while we talk about defense policy and I think we do need to re-examine it. We also want to be talking about having an effective diplomacy in the world.

Let me stick to foreign policy for a minute and talk about something that's a reality listen the theoretical. If you become president you will inherit. You will inherit the Serbian situation that you will inherit the Kosovo crisis you will inherit what continues to be something that's monitored how I guess. How do you decide what is a just intervention what is a just war. When the U.S. chooses to rise up with NATO and intervene we have to have a national security interest at stake. We have to have the ability to make a difference. It helps if we have allies who are willing to help carry the load. The military option has to be relevant to the problem we're trying to solve it. And beyond that you know it's it's always a challenge when the subject comes up to list criteria that can apply to every situation and that would be my list. But I think that in truth you really do have to look at each

situation separately. I think in both Bosnia and Kosovo we were justified. And both of those have been tentative successes historic successes I would say right now the trouble is brewing in another one of those Balkan nations Montenegro which was part of the old Yugoslavia and now in Federation with Serbia as the rump Yugoslav republic that they claim now. And they're trying to break away a little bit from Serbia. So and President Clinton is going to be addressing the the people of Kosovo I think very very soon. And I'm proud of what our country has done there. We can't be the policeman of the world. There are all these ethnic conflicts around the world we can't get drawn into all of them but we have to be willing to provide the moral leadership that the world looks to the United States to provide. And we have to have the resources to be able to play that role. Vice President Al Gore is our guest today. Join us at 800 8 9 2 6 4

7 7. Let's back to the phones. Larry in New London you're on the exchange. Larry thanks for calling in. Yes I'm calling from New London. Like President Gore I was very impressed with your book Earth in the balance. Thank you Larry. I bought a copy and gave it to a local high school. Well you're very kind. Thanks. Now I know you gave a central place in the book to population growth. Yes. And the Census Bureau projects that our population is going to go from our present to 70 million by the middle of the century to 400 million and we now accept almost a million legal immigrants a year and at least 250000 illegals to come stay here so that at least 60 percent of our population growth comes from these immigrants and they're all right. So as President I'd like to ask what would you do slow and stop us population growth as recommended by the 1972 Rockefeller Commission report. That's two issues Larry. That's immigration and population growth. Let's let's break them down. Let's begin with population growth.

Just a word about that one first. Last month the world's population crossed the 6 billion mark. It's increasing at the rate of another billion people every 10 years roughly. That's putting a strain on the global environment. It is creating instability in some nations especially those with what they call a youth bulge a high percentage of young males under the age of 25 coupled with a shortage of job opportunities for those for those young people. When that happens you get a lot of potential for unrest and revolution and discord. And so it's an issue that is very important for the stability of the world. And it's really the way to address it. Jill is partly to increase child survival rates and people say Huh. What how does that help. Well in a lot of these countries 95 percent of the growth is in the less developed world. There's no such thing as social security and they depend on large

families to ensure they have children that survive into adulthood to take care of them and if their children are prone to die in infancy or childbirth or our youth then they have lots and lots of children. Once the health care system gets to where they have confidence their children will survive. And when women are educated and empowered to participate in the decisions when birth control is available when all those things take place then the pattern shifts inexorably toward away from high birth rates and high death rates to low birth rates and low death rates. That transition is taking place in every industrial country in the world and it's taking place in some less developed countries that have concentrated on those conditions. That's really the answer to the problem. Now briefly on immigration you know let me stop you just for me because I want to stick on the environment just because because when we know you we got to know you as the environmental candidate. It's an issue you feel strongly about. You have been criticized you and the president criticized this year by several I guess a coalition of

environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund they said You reneged on promises to clean up reduce pollutants and that contribute to global warming. This is a strong constituency that you that you have in the past turned to. Are they accurate. Has have you and the president to be nagged. And no we haven't. The Congress has refused to support the the measures we've proposed and I personally went to Kyoto and Japan to help negotiate the world treaty to combat global warming. And the Republican Congress especially the Senate has refused to support that. I think that the next president has to provide leadership in educating educating the. Let me phrase it differently in providing information that causes a change in opinion around the country to encourage the Congress to educate itself about why the

American people feel so strongly that this is a threat. You know the weather's been pretty chaotic in the last few years consistent with predictions of the kind of impacts global warming will have. And most people now feel that yeah there is a connection and we've got to do something about it because the problems getting worse and we have to lead the world in addressing this problem. If your listeners don't want a president who is committed to heart and soul to move heaven and earth to address this problem they got the wrong guy here. But if they want a president who will address this firmly and boldly and effectively. That's one of the reasons I want to be president. We only have about two minutes left. Mr. Vice president I'm going to ask you to hold off on the immigration plan. I want to know if you if you can beat Bill Bradley can you beat George Bush. Well I'm concentrating on the primary and I think that the answer your question is yes without getting ahead of myself. Republicans always have more money in the last

election Republicans had $100 billion more than Democrats. But George Bush is against child safety trigger locks he's against hate crimes laws he's for public school vouchers draining money away from from education. He's against a woman's right to choose. He's endorsed this risky tax scheme that would put us right back into deficits again. He has a hard right wing agenda that he tries to portray with moderate language. But the people are interested in the substance of the of the issues and they are very much opposed. Anybody trying to buy an election. And incidentally I think that just as I'm not going to get ahead of myself. I think the people of New Hampshire intending to vote in the Republican primary including a bunch that I hear are supporting John McCain are sending a message to George W. Bush that when he said the other day that the people of New Hampshire have decided that he ought to have the nomination and they want him at present. I'm not sure that

he's seen the results of the primary yet. I think that. I don't think he's necessarily listening to what the people say here what I hear him saying is talk to us. Talk about the issues. Join in debates. Let us hear what you stand for. And so I'm not sure that that he'll be the nominee. Probably but I don't know the new people in New Hampshire have a lot to say about that. We'll be happy to have him on this program as you were you. If he if he will come. Have you invited him. Yes. Numerous numerous times. Last question. You are a vice president what will you look for in a vice president. You get to that level. Well I'm not going to count my chickens before they're hatched. I haven't even drawn up a long list much less a short list because I don't know. It just seems like it would be getting ahead of myself. But but of course anybody in that position would look first and foremost for someone

who has the capacity to become president instantaneously if the need should arise. Mr. Vice President thank you very much for joining us today. Well thank you Jill. And it's been a great pleasure and thanks to all your listeners. This is the exchange from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm Jill Kaufman.