Wilson Criticizes Clinton Vetoes : Government: Governor says during Washington visit that the president’s blocking of Medicaid reform and immigration relief will cost California billions of dollars.

Gov. Pete Wilson, stung by a spate of presidential vetoes, was in the nation’s capital Thursday to bash President Clinton for blocking Medicaid reforms and immigration relief, actions that he says have cost California billions of dollars.

In the company of half a dozen other GOP governors still angry from Wednesday’s veto of the party’s seven-year balanced budget plan, Wilson made every minute of his visit count as he lunched with state congressional leaders, held forth at three news conferences and attended a 15-minute strategy session with Newt Gingrich to discuss what the party is to do about a White House that won’t cooperate.

“We are trying to pressure the administration into recognizing the absolute necessity for the kind of reform the president has threatened to veto,” Wilson said after the third news conference. “He has vetoed the kind of [Medicaid] relief needed by states that suffer major costs unfairly. He is turning a blind eye to all the problems that we have because the feds fail to protect the border.”

Wilson specifically targeted vetoes real or threatened that he said would cost California dearly. Rejected as part of the GOP budget package was a reform plan that would have redistributed federal Medicaid funds in the form of block grants for states to spend on health care for the poor, disabled and elderly.

The president has proposed instead a so-called per capita cap that limits increases on the amount spent on each recipient of Medicaid--or Medi-Cal, as the program is known in California.

Calling the Clinton plan “infinitely worse” than the current system, Wilson predicted it would cost the state $5 billion in lost funds that would fall on the shoulders of the poor.

“What we have now is a Cadillac system for part of the people who desire health care. We also have people making less than $15,000 a year--30% of whom will not qualify for Medicaid. That’s not fair.”

Democrats contend that the poor would be devastated by a GOP block grant plan that would remove federal guarantees of coverage and allow states to decide who receives benefits. Skeptics fear that in tough fiscal times, states will simply reduce coverage or tighten eligibility requirements, leaving out vulnerable groups such as some poor children and some elderly people in nursing homes.

“President Clinton’s veto of the Gingrich budget is great news for California,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), responding to Wilson’s contentions. “Now we have to develop a responsible plan, one that doesn’t devastate the middle class and poor.”

An enduring theme in Wilson’s remarks Thursday concerned billions in immigration relief that California stands to lose to White House vetoes.

A $3.5-billion pot in the GOP budget plan would have helped cover emergency health care costs for illegal immigrants and an additional $500 million in a Commerce Department spending bill the president has said he will veto would offset the cost of locking up illegal immigrant felons. California would stand to get about half of all that money.

“Mr. Clinton has made much of giving back to Californians their tax dollars in well-publicized federal grants,” the governor said, referring to a recent federal Medicaid grant that saved the financially beleaguered Los Angeles County health care network from bankruptcy. “But rather than the small federal handouts he dispenses every time he comes West, Californians deserve the enactment of this relief from illegal immigration.”

A little more than two months after his bid for the presidency ended in an embarrassing withdrawal, Wilson’s visit to Washington also seemed to be an effort to hold his place in the national spotlight. It is his goal to remain one of 31 GOP governors considered key players in pushing reform of welfare--including Medicaid--and immigration.

At the same time, Wilson has endorsed Sen. Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) for president and has been campaigning actively for him--particularly in California, which Clinton must win if he is to hold the White House.

The governor worked at both Thursday, consistently hammering the president and ending the day as one of half a dozen governors invited to the speaker’s Capitol suite to discuss strategy in keeping the ambitious GOP agenda on track.

“I can’t talk about that,” the governor said cryptically about the session as he rushed off to waiting television cameras.