Accuracy Report Card

For the third time and final time, Al Gore and George W. Bush met for 90 minutes of campaign combat, with plenty of facts and figures on hand for ammunition. The CBS News Political Unit says some were blanks:

Fact Check #1: HEALTH CARE
Gore said, "I support a strong national patients' bill of rights. It is actually a disagreement between us. A national law that is pending on this, the Dingell-Norwood bill, a bipartisan bill, is one that I support…and that the governor does not."

Bush countered, "I do support a national patients' bill of rights."

Analysis: They're both right—however, Bush didn't accurately respond to Gore's statement. Gore supports the bipartisan Dingell-Norwood bill that was passed by the House last year, considered by both parties to be the most important "patients' bill of rights" legislation.

The bill would strengthen the rights of patients dealing with managed care plans. Bush doesn't support this bill; instead he proposes a much less restrictive version of the bill.

Fact Check #2: MORE HEALTH CARE
Bush said the percentage of those without health insurance in Texas has gone down while the percentage of uninsured has gone up nationally.

Analysis: According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of uninsured in the U.S. has gone down—not up—from 16.3 percent in 1998 to 15.5 percent in 1999.

Fact Check #3: TAXES
Bush said, "Fifty million Americans get no tax relief under his plan."

Analysis: Actually, many of those individuals would benefit from targeted tax credits in Gore's plan that Bush and other critics consider spending, not a tax cut.

However, Gore's credits effectively act as tax decreases for lower- to middle-class families with children or who are paying for education.
Fact Check #4: STUDENT TESTING
Gore said, "My (education) plan requires testing of all students."

Analysis: Not true. Gore's plan would continue to have students take the National Assessment of Education Progress. But that test is only given every four years to a small sample of students from each state. In addition, the test is already required for any school that receives federal funding.

Fact Check #5: DRUG COMPANIES
Gore said, "But (drug makers) are now spending more money on advertising and promotion—you see all these ads—than they are on research and development."

Analysis: Although drug company ads on TV have increased 20-fold in the last six years, the drug industry still spent much less on ads than on research and development, according to an independent study.

A Kaiser Family Foundation sudy in July said drug makers spent between $5.8 billion and $8.3 billion on ads and $21 billion on research and development in 1998.

Fact Check #6: SCHOOL VOUCHERS
Gore said, "Governor Bush is for vouchers. And in his plan, he proposes to drain more money—more taxpayer money—out of the public schools for private school vouchers than all of the money that he proposes in his entire budget for public schools themselves."

Analysis: Bush's voucher proposal would only be available to a limited number of children to attend private schools from a limited number of "failing" schools. But Bush has proposed a $13.4 billion education plan over 5 years.

Given Bush's restrictions on who would qualify for vouchers, it seems highly unlikely that he would spend more on vouchers than on his other education proposals.

Jane Ruvelson and Candice Berry contributed to this report. It was written by Steve Chaggaris.