Bush Tackles Many Issues During Swing

Wrapping up a seven-day road trip, President Bush paid tribute Monday to the nation's second-largest city for rebuilding from the devastation of riots 10 years earlier, saying it embodied the spirit of harmony flourishing after Sept. 11.

In a speech at a church in a black neighborhood, Bush carefully avoided using the word "riot," which many people in inner-city Los Angeles find objectionable.

"I fully understand that 10 years ago this city, because there was some violence, a lot of violence, saw incredible destruction in lives and property," Bush said, speaking about 5 miles from the flash point of the riots.

"The violence and the lawlessness always affects the most poor, always hurts the weakest, and yet out of this violence and ugliness came new hope," Bush said. It "shows the rest of the country what is possible, what can happen, what is possible in America when people put aside differences and focus on what's best for all."

Showcasing his "compassionate conservative" agenda as a seven-day road trip ended, Bush also threw his weight Monday behind the idea — if not the details — of legislation guaranteeing equitable insurance coverage for mental health services.

The president also gave his support to the California gubernatorial candidate he tried to defeat a month ago.

Turning to domestic policy and politics after a frenzied weekend of Mideast diplomacy, Bush traveled from his Texas ranch to the University of New Mexico, and on to Los Angeles.

At each stop, he had his eye on the November elections that will decide control of Congress and sought both to raise millions of dollars for GOP candidates and also to neutralize Democrat attempts to paint him as a big-business, favor-the-rich Republican.

At the stopover in New Mexico, in his first speech on mental illness during his presidency, Mr. Bush Monday declared his support for the principle of health insurance parity.

"Our health insurance system must treat serious mental illness like any other disease," said in a speech at the University of New Mexico.

But at the same time, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports, Mr. Bush said it's critical that insurance parity for mental illness does not significantly run up the cost of health care.

The president said he'll work with Congress to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills on the issue.

Congress is considering legislation that would force health plans to grant such "mental health parity" in coverage. Mr. Bush has long favored such legislation; He signed a similar bill as Texas governor, and has worked behind the scenes with lawmakers this year to get it done.

"Remarkable treatments exist and that's good, yet many people - too many people — remain untreated," the president said at the University of New Mexico, after a closed-door session in which he heard how mental illness can ravage families.

"Our country must make a commitment: Americans with mental illness deserve our understanding and they deserve excellent care; they deserve a health care system that treats their illness with the same urgency as a physical illness."

He followed through on a promise in February 2001 to form a 15-member panel on how to improve the nation's mental health treatment system. The commission will have one year to provide recommendations. Mr. Bush wasn't endorsing any specific legislation, a spokesman said.

The president was appearing with Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., whose daughter suffers from mental illness and who has championed federally enforced parity.

Many business leaders and fellow Republicans oppose it, fearing it would increase the cost of health insurance significantly. Employer groups are running ads in Washington complaining that insurance costs are already rising and urging Congress not to add to the cost by requiring better mental health coverage.

"Not one more dime. Not one more dollar. Not one more bill that raises health care costs," the ads plead.

In his 19th fund-raiser of the year, Mr. Bush also was helping raise $500,000 for Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.

Later, in Los Angeles, Bush touted his stalled initiative to expand the involvement of religious groups in providing government social services.

Bush spoke softly when marking the anniversary of the riots, but his voice rose to a shout as he discussed the initiative, stuck in the Senate, partly out of concerns about separation of church and state.

"I don't want the government to be the church, and I don't want the church to be the government," Bush said, calling himself a "humble sinner." "But government should not fear faith and faith-based programs," he added.

Saluting Los Angeles, he said: "The great hope of the country really isn't the government. The great hope of the country lies in the hearts and souls of our people."

"You've shown it in this community," he said. "Ten years after civil unrest that made history, the community is rebuilding herself with great hope and great promise."

On Tuesday, he was to give a philosophical address in California's Silicon Valley reprising his 2000 campaign theme, "a different kind of Republican."

Both California stops included fund raisers — $4 million in all
— for Bill Simon, challenger to Democrat Gov. Gray Davis and the conservative Republican the White House tried to knock out in the GOP primary by forcefully supporting former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.