Bush, Kerry Hunt Votes in Two Key States

Fla. Oct. 16, 2004 — President Bush accused Sen. John Kerry on Saturday of bowing to the "shifting sands of political convenience" when it comes to the war on terror. The Democrat stuck to domestic issues, blaming Bush for a shortage of flu vaccines.

"Millions of Americans won't get their flu shots, including seniors and children," Kerry said while also blasting Bush on joblessness. "We've got people standing in line for hours on end, some of them in their 70s and 80s, hoping to be among the lucky ones to get it."

With new polls showing the race tied or Bush slightly ahead, both candidates found new ways to go negative while rallying supporters in the campaign's two most crucial states. The incumbent was in Florida, his challenger in Ohio.

Bush and Kerry also tailored their appeals. The Democrat, a Catholic, was going to Mass and picking up a hunting license a pitch to Ohio's socially conservative Democrats motivated by values issues and gun rights.

Bush appealed to Florida's large Jewish population by signing a bill requiring the State Department to document attacks on Jews around the world. The department had opposed the measure, calling it unnecessary.

Amid strobe lights and swirling smoke, Bush's campaign bus drove into a darkened sports arena here, depositing the president on stage with red-white-and-blue lights flickering across a crowd of 10,000 supporters. He noted that a year ago Sunday his opponent voted against an $87 billion bill for military reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Senator Kerry apparently decided supporting the troops even while they were in harm's way was not as important as shoring up his own political position," Bush said.

Kerry, a four-term senator from Massachusetts, voted against the bill to protest Bush's policies on Iraq during the Democratic nomination fight. Kerry was trying to overtake anti-war candidate Howard Dean.

To a chorus of anti-Kerry boos, Bush accused his rival of playing politics with war: "At a time of great threat to our country, at a time of great challenge to the world, the commander in chief must stand on principle, not the shifting sands of political convenience."

Kerry's campaign noted that a year ago Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned in a memo to the White House of problems in Iraq. "The fact that George Bush is continuing to rely on these same desperate attacks tells a lot about how a second Bush term would just be more of the same," Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said.

In Ohio, where 20 electoral votes are at stake, Kerry accused Bush of missing signs that a flu vaccine shortage was imminent. The attack fit into a broader campaign theme that on Iraq, the economy and many other matters, Bush is disconnected from problems facing Americans.

Kerry said, "What's happening with the flu vaccine is really an example of everything this administration does deny it, pretend it's not there, and then try to hid it when it comes out and act surprised." His campaign released a television ad that says Bush "failed to fix the problem."

A Bush spokesman accused Kerry of hypocrisy for criticizing the president after voting against a measure that would protect vaccine manufactures from punitive damages.

Kerry hopes the issue cuts against Bush among women and the elderly, especially in Florida, where running mate John Edwards campaigned Saturday. Kerry himself was due in the state Sunday and Monday.

Four years ago, Bush won Florida by 537 votes after the Supreme Court stopped a disputed recount. In his bid for the winning margin of 270 electoral votes, Kerry needs to win at least one state that Bush claimed in 2000.

Both campaigns are marshaling armies of lawyers to prepare for the prospect of legal challenges in Florida and several other states Election Day. Tom Josefiak, the Bush campaign's top lawyer, said Saturday "it may takes days or weeks" after Nov. 2 to determine the winner.

The race in Ohio is just as close. Bush won the state with relative ease four years ago, but Ohio has lost 237,000 jobs since he took office.

Introducing Kerry in Xenia, Ohio, laid-off worker Mike Adams pulled his empty pockets out of his jeans and angrily challenged assertions that Bush's tax cuts have benefited the middle class. "I'd like him to tell me where that money is now," Adams said.

Kerry hugged the man and said, "His story underscores the great truth gap between what this administration tells you and what life is really like."

In his weekly radio address, Bush said the economy "has grown at the fastest rate of any major industrialized nation." Kerry used the Democratic address to accuse Bush of banning stem-cell research an exaggeration of the president's policy to restrict drastically the studies.

Associated Press Political Writer Ron Fournier reported from Washington. AP Writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this story.

Price caps have driven vaccine makers out of business or out of the country. Bush has been fighting to remove price caps. Where has the Senate been on this?

FY2004 Budget and Vaccines - President Bush released his FY2004 Budget Proposal in early February 2003. The President’s proposal would expand the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program in three ways:

1. The first goal is to improve vaccine access for underinsured children at state and public health clinics. Currently, underinsured children are only eligible to receive VFC vaccine at federally qualified health centers. Under the new plan underinsured children would be eligible to receive vaccine through the VFC program at state and local public health clinics. ("Underinsured" is defined as no coverage for immunization. Children with health insurance with high deductibles or co-pays are not considered underinsured under this proposal.)

Further comments from CDC/NIP officials on the expansion proposal:

No anticipated change in public and/or private market share. Underinsured children are currently being served by public funds through Section 317 vaccine purchasing program. They will still be covered by public funds under the President’s proposal but now via the VFC program. Designed to take pressure off Section 317 vaccine purchases and state funds to cover immunizations for underinsured children. Many states do not have funding from Section 317 to provide PCV-7 in public clinics. As more new vaccines enter the market, lack of sufficient 317 funding will become a growing problem to provide vaccines in public health clinics. The shift to the VFC program for purchase of these vaccines, however, will alleviate this cost burden from the Section 317 vaccine purchasing program and ensure that funding is provided.

2. The second goal of the President is to reinstate Td and DT to the VFC program by removing price caps. Currently, price caps exist on vaccines that were in the program at its formation: MMR, Hib, IPV, Td and DT. Rather than submit to the VFC price cap for Td and DT, the manufacturer of these vaccines refused to enter into a VFC contract and these vaccines have not been part of VFC for several years. This proposal would lift all the price caps in the program with the intent of bringing Td and DT back onto the federal contract and into the VFC program.

The proposal would:

Lift price caps on all vaccines including MMR, Hib, IPV and Td/DT

Provide incentives to manufacturer to bid on contracts

Cost an estimated $10M (to be shifted from 317 to VFC)

Possibly increase cost of other vaccines, but MMR is currently the only vaccine selling at capped price, others sell below cap

Take pressure off the states to negotiate and purchase Td/DT in the open market

3. The third goal is to build a six-month national stockpile of childhood vaccines should an emergency or vaccine shortage problem occur. A strategic plan for building the stockpile would be developed by CDC in conjunction with its immunization partners.

The President's stockpile plan acknowledges the authority under the VFC program to stockpile vaccine for all children (not just VFC eligible children). The estimated time for the stockpile to be ready is 2006.

Estimated costs for stockpiling for FY2003-FY2006 totals $707M ($172M for FY2003).

*It is important to note that expanding VFC to cover underinsured children in additional settings and lifting the price caps will require legislation contingent upon Congress's approval. According to CDC, if Congress does not pass such legislation, the President's budget proposal for Section 317 vaccine purchase will remain at the current level.

In conjunction with the proposal to expand VFC to cover underinsured children, the President’s budget includes a shift in vaccine purchase funding from Section 317 to VFC. This shift of $110M to the VFC program from Section 317 in FY2004 will go into effect only if Congress passes the VFC expansion, according to Dr. Walter Orenstein, Director of NIP. Also, according to Dr. Orenstein there will be a $7M decrease in the overall Section 317 budget, which will be taken from IT (information technology) at the National Immunization Program.

The budget for Section 317 operations/infrastructure remains level in the President’s budget proposal at $201M, of which $189.5M reported by CDC will be granted to States. The $189.5M figure is below the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation of $200M in grants to states.

**An additional note: VFC contains an additional $40M for the catch-up pneumococcal vaccine but no funding has been allotted for the new combination vaccine thus far.

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