Bush's plans: Wants $3,000 re-employment accounts to help
the unemployed with job-search expenses. Wants to make
recently passed temporary tax cuts permanent, ease business
regulations, pursue more free-trade deals, increase domestic
energy production, limit class-action lawsuits and medical
malpractice liability. Also, give tax breaks, regulatory
relief and investment incentives to needy communities.
Kerry: Keep Bush's tax cuts for middle- and low-income
people but raise taxes on people earning over $200,000. He
promises taxpayers earning less than $200,000: "I am not going
to raise taxes." Would increase child-care tax credit by
$1,000. Spend on highways, school construction, pollution
cleanup, energy projects and more to create 3 million jobs in
500 days. Provide $50 billion over two years to states
struggling with budget deficits.
___
EDUCATION
Bush: Championed a 2002 overhaul of elementary and
secondary education that toughened standards for teachers,
schools and student achievement. Budget proposal would
increase spending on poor school districts, children with
disabilities, Pell grants to help poor students attend
college, and experimental private-school voucher programs. The
plan would cut spending on vocational education, a family
literacy program, arts in education, dropout prevention and
more. Budget proposal, if passed, would mark 43 percent
increase in federal spending on programs under the No Child
Left Behind Act since Bush took office.
Kerry: Establish community service plan for high school
students that would qualify them for the equivalent of their
states' four-year public college tuition if they perform two
years of national service. Provide a tax credit for every year
of college on the first $4,000 paid in tuition. Credit would
provide 100 percent of the first $1,000 and 50 percent on the
rest. Opposes private-school vouchers. Backed 2002 changes but
says insufficient money was spent on them and too much
emphasis is placed on tests for measuring student achievement.
Wants to establish $200 billion education trust fund to help
pay for the 2002 school reforms and special education.
___
ENVIRONMENT-ENERGY
Bush record: Withdrew from Kyoto global warming treaty.
Reversed 2000 campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, a
main gas linked to climate change. Proposed easing rules that
require older industrial plants and refineries to add
pollution controls if they expand. Required cleaner engines
for diesel trucks. Sped up forest-thinning projects on public
woodlands. Spent $3 billion on fix-ups in national parks but
did not eliminate maintenance backlog as promised. Balked at
tougher fuel-economy requirements for cars, supported modest
increase for SUVs and pickup trucks.
Bush plans: Change clean air laws to use a market-based
approach to reduce pollution from power plants, including
first national cap on mercury emissions. Cut spending next
year on low-interest loans for local clean water projects.
Increase federal support for development of hydrogen-fueled
car. Open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil
drilling.
Kerry: Re-engage "in the development of an international
climate change strategy to address global warming"; no
explicit endorsement of Kyoto treaty. No drilling in Arctic
refuge. Has supported tougher fuel economy standards for
vehicles. Goal of 20 percent of electricity from renewable or
alternative sources by 2020. Steer $20 billion from oil and
gas royalties to development of cleaner energy. Goal of
independence from Middle East oil in 10 years. Tougher
standards for companies operating on public lands.
___
FARMING
Bush: Signed a nearly 80 percent expansion of farm
subsidies in 2002 despite previous misgivings that the extra
money would cause overproduction and depress prices. Budget
plan for 2005 would reduce spending on rural development
programs and conservation funds.
Kerry: Supports ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock to
help ensure markets for farmers. Unspecified increase in farm
conservation programs. Supported 2002 bill that boosted farm
subsidies.
___
GAY RIGHTS
Bush: Proposes constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage. Has continued former President Clinton's policy
allowing gays to serve in military if they are not open about
their homosexuality.
Kerry: Opposes gay marriage but also opposes constitutional
amendment against it; supports right to civil unions. Would
ban job discrimination against homosexuals, extend hate-crime
protections to gays and let gays serve openly in the military.
___
GUNS
Bush: Favors granting gun makers immunity from civil
lawsuits, but that measure failed in the Senate. Backed
congressional maneuvers letting the ban on assault-type
weapons expire, while saying he supports the ban and a
requirement for background checks at gun shows. Criticized
Clinton for weak enforcement of existing gun laws, but
prosecution of people who lie on background checks has
continued to lag.
Kerry: Supports ban on assault-type weapons and requiring
background checks at gun shows. Opposes granting immunity to
gun makers.
___
HEALTH CARE
Bush: Number of Americans without health insurance has
risen in his presidency, reaching nearly 45 million in 2003,
up from nearly 40 million in 2000. Achieved prescription drug
benefit for older Americans that subsidizes costs for
low-income patients and encourages private insurance companies
to offer coverage for the elderly willing to opt out of
traditional Medicare. Cost of drug benefit and other Medicare
changes now estimated at $534 billion over 10 years, up from
$395 billion when changes were debated. New tax-free medical
savings accounts can be opened by people under 65 who meet
certain conditions. Monthly Medicare premiums for doctor
visits are rising a record $11.60 next year, or 17 percent.
Independent study finds family health insurance premiums in
employer-sponsored plans up 11 percent, averaging $9,950
annually for family of four.
Kerry: Expand existing insurance system for federal
employees to private citizens through tax credits and
subsidies. Unemployed would get 75 percent tax credit to help
pay for insurance. Tax credits for small businesses and their
employees for health insurance. People aged 55 to 64 could buy
into federal employees' health plan at affordable price.
Government would help companies and insurers pay an employee's
catastrophic medical costs if the firms would agree to hold
down premiums. Federal support to expand access to
state-administered health insurance for children. Overall
costs estimated by outside analyst at $895 billion over 10
years, to cover 27 million more people.
___
IMMIGRATION
Bush: Proposes granting legal status to millions of illegal
workers as well as people outside the United States who line
up jobs in America. Plan would give temporary legal status and
expand the current program for highly skilled foreign workers
and farm labor to other sectors of the economy where jobs are
not being filled by Americans. Opposes giving illegal
immigrants an "automatic path to citizenship."
Kerry: People who have been in the United States at least
five years, paid taxes and "stayed out of trouble ought to be
able to translate into an American citizen immediately."
___
IRAQ WAR
Bush: Swift military victory followed by violent aftermath
and halting efforts at stabilizing new government, with more
than 1,000 U.S. military deaths. Won congressional approval of
$87 billion for continued military operations and aid in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Defends decision to go to war despite later
findings that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, the
central rationale at the time, and that Saddam Hussein's ties
to al-Qaida were tenuous at most. Says Saddam had the will to
foment unrest, cooperate with terrorists and develop such
weapons over time.
Kerry: Supported congressional resolution letting Bush go
to war but says he did so based on faulty U.S. intelligence
and with the belief the president would build a true coalition
and exhaust options short of war. Opposed $87 billion package
for Iraq and Afghanistan. Says he would try to begin U.S.
troop withdrawal in six months and complete it in four years,
by encouraging allies to commit more forces.
___
MILITARY:
Bush: Says military commanders believe active-duty forces
are adequate. "If they need more, I will make sure they get
it." Is beginning an overhaul of overseas deployments, with
70,000 troops coming out of South Korea and Europe, many
Cold-War era bases to be closed, and more troops to be
stationed in U.S. with temporary assignments to growing
network of no-frills "forward operating sites" in Asia,
Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. "We're not going
to have a draft so long as I am the president." Iraq and war
on terrorism have stretched both active-duty forces and
reserves.
Kerry: Boost active-duty forces worldwide by 40,000, double
Army special forces capability, increase civil-affairs troops
by half, boost military police and psychological-operations
personnel. "I don't support a draft."
___
NUCLEAR THREATS:
Bush: Using diplomacy to try to stop nuclear proliferation
in the remaining "axis of evil" countries, North Korea and
Iran. May offer Iran economic incentives to suspend its
uranium enrichment activities; prepared to push for economic
sanctions if Iran does not concede. Six-nation negotiations
have produced little progress in persuading North Korea to end
its nuclear program.
Kerry: Supports one-on-one talks between U.S. and North
Korea alongside the six-nation negotiations. Says U.S. and
other nations should offer Iran nuclear fuel for peaceful
purposes, then take back the spent fuel so it cannot be used
to develop nuclear weapons.
___
RETIREMENT-SOCIAL SECURITY
Bush: Give younger workers the option of putting part of
their payroll tax into personal retirement accounts, giving
them a chance to make a higher return on that investment in
return for smaller Social Security benefits.
Kerry: Opposes partial privatization of Social Security.
Would require companies switching to cheaper lump-sum pension
plans to offer retiring workers the choice of staying with
traditional company pension.
___
STEM CELL RESEARCH
Bush: Signed executive order in August 2001 limiting
federal research money to embryonic stem-cell lines then in
existence, to ensure government does not support future
production of embryos for research purposes. No controls on
private embryonic stem-cell research.
Kerry: Would reverse Bush's restrictions and put money into
the research, ensuring unspecified ethical standards are
followed through "good will and good sense." Aides say Kerry
would not support creation of embryos specifically for
research, but would finance research letting scientists study
leftover embryos created for infertility treatment.
___
TRADE
Bush: Supports liberalized trade and is pursuing a variety
of bilateral trade deals as well as one for the Western
Hemisphere.
Kerry: Supported North American and world trade agreements
and elevated trade status with China. Would place all such
trade agreements under 120-day review to see if they are fair,
taking unspecified "necessary steps" if they are not. Would
require companies moving jobs to other countries to give the
government and workers notice. Says all trade deals should
have labor and environmental standards, but United States
cannot insist in these deals that foreign standards rise to
the level of America's. New tax credit for manufacturers that
expand their U.S. work force, covering payroll taxes of new
workers.
Issues
2004 
Issues