ANCHESTER, N.H. - Going on the offensive against Vice President Al Gore for a second straight day, Democratic presidential contender Bill Bradley yesterday sharply criticized Gore's health-care proposals, saying Gore is content to ''take a broken system and throw money at it.''
Speaking to about 160 people who packed an auditorium at the University of New Hampshire, Bradley asserted that Gore has spoken grandly of his ambitions for health-care reform but is proposing only small, symbolic improvements in the system. The vice president's narrow-gauge approach epitomizes why so many voters have lost faith in political leaders, Bradley said.
''Big rhetoric followed by small actions contributes to people's cynicism about politics,'' Bradley said. ''We live in a time of unparalleled prosperity. We should fix our roof when the sun is shining. We should do something big'' to provide health care for millions who lack it.
In response, the vice president, also campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday, said that Bradley's health-care plan is irresponsibly spendthrift and would theaten the economy. Gore press secretary Chris Lehane asserted that Bradley was going over to the attack because he ''is increasingly becoming a desperate politician ...''
Yesterday's back-and-forth represented a further sharpening of differences between the two Democratic contenders, a phenomenon many campaign workers say is happening much earlier than they expected. On Monday, Bradley ripped into Clinton-Gore foreign policy in Russia and the Balkans. New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary is Feb. 1.
In Bedford, Gore told a group of 200 business people that he knows how to keep the economy going strong. Over a bacon and eggs breakfast, Gore said the policy proposals of Bradley and all the Republican candidates for president would harm the economy.
''I will pledge to you, if you elect me president, I will balance the budget and better every single year,'' Gore said, vowing also to reduce the national debt during each year of a Gore presidency in order to keep interest rates low.
While Gore frequently reminds voters about economic growth in New England during the Clinton administration, it is usually an aside, rather than his main focus. This time, aligning himself with the president, Gore took credit for the nation's economic turnaround, saying the administration has gotten the fundamentals right, while his opponents have not.
''Every single one of the Republican candidates for president has endorsed a truly reckless tax scheme that would immediately put our country right back into deficits,'' Gore said. ''Senator Bradley, by contrast, in his very first campaign proposal proposes a health-care scheme that would give two-thirds of the money to people who already have insurance, many of them wealthy, and spend the entire budget surplus for the next 10 years, also putting us immediately right back into deficit.''
Bradley spoke before 300 students and faculty who received him warmly at Keene State College. The candidate delivered the best performance of his two-day New England swing, frequently getting laughs and applause for folksy jokes and family stories.
In addition to his comments on health care, Bradley also issued a challenge to other candidates to forgo the use of ''soft money'' in the campaign. Soft money refers to the contribution of unlimited and unregulated funds from individuals and corporations to political parties.
Bradley noted that while Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Republican contender and campaign finance reform advocate, agreed to the idea of a ban, ''the vice president's campaign attacked me.
''I think that gives a pretty good idea of where people are coming from,'' he said.
