07/17/2007

By BOB LEWIS  / Associated Press

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday said the Bush administration had broken historic partnerships between local governments and the federal government and promised to support a range of federal aid to localities, including health insurance for children and funding for community development.

The former first lady promised about 2,500 elected county officials attending the National Association of Counties annual convention that she and a Democratic Congress would expand the child health insurance program to cover 9 million uninsured children if she wins next year's election.

Clinton said county governments have coped with 45 million Americans who have no health coverage and that those Americans have been "invisible to the president for the last 6 1/2 years."

"We're ready to make a change in Washington, D.C., so they will no longer be invisible to the president of the United States," Clinton said in a pointed attack on the Bush White House.

She accused Bush of threatening year after year to veto funding for the child health insurance program and urged support for a bipartisan package in Congress that would provide more health coverage to uninsured children.

Clinton said it was time to begin spending money going to Iraq on a number of problems counties confront daily, including tax cuts, concerns about the safety of imported food and rural business development. She also called for expanding federal community development block grants that local governments have broad discretion in using.

"I can't understand for the life of my why this president keeps trying to cut this program every year," Clinton said.