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President to tout senior drug plan in 3-day Florida swing
By ANITA KUMAR and ADAM C. SMITH
Published May 6, 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday will begin a three-day campaign-style swing across Florida to promote a federal prescription drug program.
Bush is expected to speak to groups, many of them seniors, in the Tampa Bay area, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando about Medicare Part D, the program that provides drugs for America's elderly and disabled.
On Tuesday, he will speak at Broward Community College and at Sun City Center near Tampa; on Wednesday, at the Asociacion Borinquena de Florida Central, a Puerto Rican association in Orlando.
Millions of Americans eligible for Part D have not signed up and will face penalties if they sign up after May 15. They won't have a chance to enroll until Nov. 15, when coverage will cost more and won't begin until 2007.
"The administration has launched a broad outreach effort to educate seniors about the prescription drug program," White House spokesman Blair Jones said. Bush also will appear Monday at a private fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale for Republican Rep. Clay Shaw, who is in a battle to keep his seat.
The president's trip fueled speculation that Florida House Speaker Allan Bense would jump into the Senate race next week and appear with the president.
"In a challenging year (for Republicans) like this, more and more of us want someone like him to represent the ticket," former state Republican chairman Al Cardenas said of Bense. But Senate candidate Katherine Harris, a U.S. representative from Longboat Key, accepted an invitation to join the president at Sun City Center Tuesday, her spokesman Chris Ingram said. And a spokesman for Bense said the speaker has no plans to join the president.
A growing number of Republican insiders expect Bense to get in the race.
"I hope he runs, and my guess is he will," said Brian Ballard, a lobbyist who was chief of staff to Gov. Bob Martinez. "I think he beats her if he runs because I don't think she can get 51 percent of the vote against a credible candidate."
[Last modified May 6, 2006, 02:00:14]
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