Gore Delivers Economic Policy Speech at Columbia University
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to take you now to Columbia University in New York. Vice President Al Gore is making a campaign stop there today. He is talking about the economy, an issue he believes works for him in this election. Let's listen in.</s>VICE PRES. AL GORE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... heard me say in the past what respect I have for Bob Rubin and what a joy it was to work with him so closely during the last eight years. Let me also say it's great to be back at Columbia just five months after my daughter Karenna's law school graduation. Secretary Rubin and I were talking just before we came out here, and this is really a privilege to have a chance to, once again, be with him because we worked together to get the fundamentals right; to make sure that our economy headed in the right direction. And we faced some hard choices and we picked the hard right over the easy wrong. I've come here today to talk about the choices that our country faces now. Because just 19 days from today, Americans will choose not only a new president but a whole new future for our country. Some have suggested that with a strong and growing economy, the stakes are somehow lower in this election. I believe the opposite is true. We now have a greater chance than at any time in our lifetimes to create the America of our ideals. If we don't make the right choices today, that chance could slip right through our hands. And so on November 7th, we face one of the biggest choices America has faced in half a century, a choice of priorities; a choice of values; a choice as fundamental as prosperity itself. Will we seize this moment to extend the prosperity and share it widely? or will we just lavish more on those who need it least and threaten our economic gains? Will we make the right choices and the right investments to keep our economy growing? or will we bust the budget and short-change the future for a massive tax cut for the few? This is about more than numbers on a spreadsheet. All Americans created this prosperity, and I want to make sure it enriches all Americans. And I want to make two simple points today. The economic policies my opponent has put forward in this election are not just unfair, they are unsound and they would hurt our economy. Thanks to the hard work of the American people, the entrepreneurial spirit of our businesses, and the right economic policies, America has put its house in order. Instead of sky-high deficits, we have record surpluses, and opportunity as vast as the New York skyline. Instead of high unemployment, we have 22 million new jobs, and the lowest unemployment in 30 years. The lowest African-American and Latino unemployment in the entire history of the United States. It wasn't easy to get here. And I don't believe our future prosperity is preordained. I don't believe we can take liberties with it or take it for granted. Our families have worked too hard, and come too far, to just throw it all away. Yes, we've come a long way, but that's not what this election is about. I am asking for your support not because of how far we've come, but because of how much farther we can go together.</s>MESERVE: Al Gore speaking today at Columbia University, saying that on November 7th, election day, the country faces a big choice, whether, he says, whether to seize the moment to extend and expand our prosperity, or lavish more on those who need it least and squander our economic gain. He criticized the economic proposals of his opponent, George W. Bush, calling them "unfair, unsound," and also saying they would hurt our economy. For his part, Republican George W. Bush today accused the Gore campaign of trying to scare senior citizens about his plan to reform Social Security. Speaking in suburban Detroit he defended his goal to let what he called "the rising generation" of younger workers invest part of their Social Security payroll tax.</s>GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's irresponsible for the chairman of the Democratic Party, and for Vice President Gore to stoke the fears of seniors, while ignoring the hopes of younger workers. A true leader does not try to pit grandparents against grandchildren.</s>MESERVE: Bush will talk more about his economic agenda on CNN's "STREET SWEEP." That's at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 Pacific.