Kerry: World wants Bush out of White House’
Sunday, October 17, 2004
dailytimes.com.pk
* Kerry says judgement of American people on Nov 2 will be watched around the globe
* Bush slams Kerry’s social platform as outdated
WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry late Friday proclaimed that the world wants President George W. Bush out of the White House and the return of the United States “they know and love.”
In a new swipe at Republican Bush’s muscular foreign policy, Kerry renewed his pledge to return the United States to the internationalism that marked its foreign policy for the second half of the 20th century. “The world is waiting for the United States of America they know and love,” Kerry told some 5,000 supporters at a rally that capped a day-long bus tour of this midwestern state.
“The United States of America is most effective ... when we have friends and allies by our side and we move with other nations.”
Kerry told the crowd, braving chilly temperatures and sleet, that their judgement on Election Day, November 2, would be watched around the globe. “The world is waiting for what you are going to do. You don’t just get to chose the president of the United States, you get to decide the leader of the free world.” Kerry has accused Bush of ruining long-term US alliances with his policy of pre-emptive strikes against potential threats to the United States, while Bush has charged that foreign states would wield control over US action abroad under a Kerry administration.
The two rivals Friday scouted votes in the heartland states of Wisconsin and Iowa, which narrowly went Democratic in 2000 but are closely watched in this year’s election. Bush lashed out against Kerry’s social platform as outdated.
“This economy is moving forward and we’re not going back to the old days of tax-and-spend,” Bush said during a campaign stop in central Iowa early Friday.
Bush said Kerry will raise taxes if he wins. “On issue after issue, from jobs to health care, to the need to strengthen social security, Senator Kerry’s policies fail to recognise the changing realities of today’s world and the need for fundamental reforms,” Bush charged.
Kerry meanwhile accused Bush of bleeding the middle class while lining the pockets of the rich.
“In the end, George Bush and I just have fundamentally different approaches to jobs and the economy,” Kerry said in a speech in this electorally crucial midwestern state. “He thinks that we should give more to the most and, eventually, a little something will filter down to the middle class,” the Massachusetts senator said. “He judges the success of our economy by the success of those at the top. I disagree.” Kerry lashed out at tax cuts he said favoured the rich and at the net loss of US jobs under Bush. He said the administration had done nothing to raise the minimum wage and failed to bring down health care and energy costs.
“The most important thing is to lower the cost of health care and to raise incomes for middle class Americans, put in place a 4,000-dollar tuition tax credit, get 1,000 dollars into the pocket of Americans by lowering their health care premiums,” Kerry told CNN in an interview late Friday. Bush, speaking in Wisconsin later in the day, called Kerry’s health plan “an overpriced albatross, which would saddle small businesses with 225 new mandates.”
“Health care must be available and affordable and portable to help small businesses, and we don’t need to saddle them with a bunch of government rules,” Bush said. afp |
