Candidates hold competing news conferences

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COLCHESTER, VT

(Host) Vermont's leading candidates for the U.S. House held competing news conferences today.

Democrat Peter Welch focused on health care, when Republican Martha Rainville proposed a campaign spending limit.

VPR's John Dillon has more:

(Dillon) Peter Welch went to a Burlington street corner to talk about health care. He stood outside the Oasis Diner -the place where Democrats a year ago launched health care reform efforts.

Welch pointed to the bipartisan support for the Catamount health plan that passed the legislature this year. He said states are stepping in where the federal government has failed on health care.

(Welch) "We can make progress. We've shown that in Vermont. Other states have taken leadership. They've shown it. What we have a stonewalling, by the Republican congress and by George Bush - who is literally taking us in the wrong direction. Five million more Americans without insurance is disgraceful. And it's unacceptable. It's unnecessary and it can be changed."

(Dillon) Welch says Medicaid and Medicare programs should be expanded to cover more of the uninsured.

He'd like the federal government to be more flexible in allowing states to come up with their own reform plans. And he wants to cut the cost of prescription drugs by requiring the government to negotiate lower drug prices...

Read more here.