Washington (H24N). Republican presidential nominee Texas Gov. George W. Bush pledged Friday to spend $91 billion to battle diseases like AIDS and cancer if he is elected.

Bush’s plan, revealed during campaign stop in Sun City, Fla., proposes a doubling of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) annual budget over a 10-year period, as well as an extension of the Research and Development Tax Credit.

"I will fund and lead a medical moonshot to reach far beyond what seems possible today and discover new cures for age-old afflictions," Bush said. Bush told the group of assembled seniors that finding cures, especially for cancer, is one of his greatest challenges.

"There are few greater goals we could set, few greater legacies we could leave than speeding the advancement of medical knowledge and care," he said. "If I am elected president, our government will promote medical advances with new resolve."

The campaign of Bush’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Gore, chastised Bush for courting votes by proposing plans that his presidency cannot afford to fund.

"Governor Bush needs to answer serious questions about the trillion-dollar hole in his budget before he makes any more spending promises," Douglas Hattaway, a Gore spokesman, said. Florida’s seniors and Americans everywhere deserve to know that he cannot pay for the promise he is making today." Bush joins a chorus of Democrats and Republicans who have accused the Clinton-Gore administration of failing increase to funding to NIH. Gore was one of those Democrats, breaking from his boss, President Clinton, in June promoting a plan similar to Bush’s proposal.

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