Kerry-Edwards Talking Points (long)

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I created this fact sheet from the Kerry-Edwards book Our Plan for America, Michael Moore's Stupid White Men and other sources. I find it useful as a quick reference. Maybe someone else can use it.

Why George W. Bush Must Go

George W. Bush's term as President of the United States, by many different standards, can be characterized as one of the worst in American history.
Among his "achievements":

- Presided over the first administration since the Depression to lose jobs. In the last four years America has lost 1 million jobs, down 7 million from projections.
- Finishing term with a record budget deficit--$477B for 2004
- Approved a drug bill which specifically denies the ability of Medicare to bargain with pharmaceutical companies over the cost of drugs
- Mounted an ineffectual "war on terror" by invading the sovereign nation of Iraq in violation of the UN Charter, resulting in over 1,000 American deaths and more than 40,000 Iraqi deaths
- Failed to capture perpetrator of 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden
- Cut $39 million from federal spending on libraries
- Cut $35 million in funding for advanced pediatric training for doctors
- Appointed Gale Norton, industrial lobbyist with consistentlys anti-environmental positions, as Secretary of the Interior
- Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50 percent
- Delayed rules that would reduce "acceptable" levels of arsenic in drinking water
- Cut funding for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks by 28 percent
- Revoked rules strengthening the power of the government to deny contracts to companies that violate federal laws, environmental laws, and workplace safety standards
- Broke campaign promise to invest $100 million per year in rain forest conservation
- Reduced by 86 percent the Community Access Program, which coordinated care for people without health insurance among public hopsitals clinics, and otherhealth care providers.
- Nullified a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential ramifications of chemical plant accidents
- Cut funding for the Girls and Boys Clubs of America programs in public housing by $60 million
- Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol agreements on global warming, ultimately signed by 178 other countries
- Rejected an international accord to enforce the 1972 treaty banning germ warfare
- Cut $200 million from the Childcare and Development grant, a program that provides child care to low-income families as they are forced from welfare to work
- Cut $700 million in funds for public housing repairs
- Cut half a billion dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency's budget
- Overturned workplace ergonomic rules designed to protect workers' health and safety
- Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to global warming
- Nominated former mining company executive Dan Lauriski as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health
- Appointed Lynn Scarlett, a global warming skeptic and an opponent of stricter standards on air pollution, as Undersecretary of the Interior
- Approved Interior Secretary Gale Norton's controversial plan to auction off areas close to Florida's eastern shore for oil and gas development
- Announced plans to allow oil drilling in Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest
- Threatened to shut down the White House AIDS office
- Decided no longer to seek guidance from the American Bar Association on federal judicial appointments
- Denied college financial aid to students convicted of misdemeanor drug charges (though convicted murderers are still eligible)
- Allocated only 3 percent of the amount requested by Justice Department lawyers in the government's continued litigation against tobacco companies
- Pushed through a tax cut, 43 percent of which goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans
- Cut $15.7 million from programs dealing with child abuse and neglect
- Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program, which gives free books to poor children
- Pushed for development of "mini-nukes" in violation of the 1972 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
- Tried to reverse regulation protecting sixty million acres of national forest from logging and road building
- Appointed John Bolton, an opponent of nonproliferation treaties and the United Nations, as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
- Made Monsanto executive Linda Fisher deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Nominated Michael McConnell, a leading critic of church and state, to a federal judgeship
- Canceled the 2004 deadline for auto makers to develop prototype high-mileage cars
- Named John Walters, an ardent opponent of prison drug treatment programs, as drug czar
- Appointed oil and coal lobbyist J. Steven Giles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior
- Named Bennett Raley, who has called for the repeal of the Endangered Species Act, as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science
- Sought the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves in World War II
- Appointed as solicitor general Ted Olson, his chief lawyer in the Florida voting controversy
- Proposed to ease the permit process for constructng refineries and nuclear and hydroelectric dams including lowering environmental standards
- Proposed the selling of oil and gas tracts in the Alaska Wildlife Preserve

(Source: Michael Moore's Stupid White Men)

The Bush Administration: A History of Broken Promises

"You can't say one thing and do another." — George W. Bush, 10/31/00

During the presidential campaign and his first year in office, George W. Bush made a number of promises affecting American families, but he has failed to keep them. From breaching the Social Security lockbox to making it harder for middle class families to pay for college and leaving out millions of seniors from his prescription drug proposal, Bush has made a habit out of saying one thing and doing another. Here is a catalogue of Bush's broken promises revealed in his FY 2003 budget and in other key policy areas. In contrast to Bush's failures, Democrats have a strong record of progress on these issues.

Deficit
"Tax relief is central to my plan to encourage economic growth, and we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens."
Bush's FY 2003 budget posts $106 billion deficit, the first deficit since 1997. The budget will return to balance in 2005, at the earliest.

Social Security
"Another priority is retirement systems of Americans. And so the budget I set up says that payroll taxes are only going to be spent on one thing, and that's Social Security. But the Congress won't be using the payroll taxes for other programs. Lockbox, I think, is the terminology they like to use up here."

" all the Social Security surpluses ... to fund the government for the next two years, and to spend well over $100 billion of Social Security funds in each of the following three years."

After including Bush's spending proposals, CBO predicted a trust fund raid every year through 2012 and an on-budget deficit of $1.8 trillion.

National Debt
"And after we fund important priorities in the ongoing operations of our Government, I believe we ought to pay down national debt. And so my budget pays down a record $2 trillion in debt over the next 10 years."

In December 2001, the Bush administration announced that it would be forced to ask Congress to increase the $5.95 trillion federal debt ceiling in order to avoid a breach. The Bush administration asked Congress to raise the debt limit by $750 billion. The Washington Post headline read, "In Switch, Administration Seeks to Boost Debt Ceiling Now"

Education Reform
"And so the new role of the Federal Government is to set high standards, provide resources, hold people accountable, and liberate school districts to meet the standards. ... We're going to spend more on our schools, and we're going to spend it more wisely,"

"Just one month ago, Congress and the President enacted the most important education reform legislation in 30 years. This bipartisan law is based on the principle that, with adequate resources, real reform is possible. But rather than building on this progress, the President's budget cuts initiatives in The No Child Left Behind Act by a net total of $90 million."

President Bush proposed a 2.8 percent increase, roughly $1.4 billion, in education funding, the smallest increase in seven years.

Pell Grants
"I am going to ask Congress to bolster the first year aid from $3,300 to $5,100 per recipient of the Pell Grant, to encourage children to not only to attended higher education but to complete the first year of higher education."

The Bush FY 2003 budget proposal froze the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,000 per student. The purchasing power of the maximum Pell grant has eroded from 84 percent of the cost of a public university in 1976 to 40 percent of average fixed costs (tuition and fees, room and board) at four-year public colleges today.
LIHEAP
"First and foremost, we got to make sure we fully fund LIHEAP, which is a way to help low-income folks, particularly here in the East, to pay for their high fuel bills," Bush said.

In Bush's FY 2003 budget proposal, LIHEAP funding was reduced by $300 million, from $1.7 billion in FY 2002 to $1.4 billion, a decrease of 18 percent.

Medicare
"Another priority of the federal government will be to have a Medicare system of which we can be proud, a Medicare system that will include prescription drugs for all seniors, a Medicare system that understands that some seniors have to choose between food and medicine. That's not our vision for the country," Bush said.

This year, by his own estimate, Bush's prescription drug plan fails to cover 7 million Medicare recipients. "Approximately 10 million seniors and persons with disabilities have no prescription drug coverage. This proposal is expected to lead to coverage for up to 3 million Medicare beneficiaries who would otherwise not receive coverage until the Medicare drug benefit is fully implemented, which will require several years."

Environment
Bush broke his campaign promise to invest $100 million per year in rain forest conservation, and one to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

(Source: http://www.democrats.org/specialreports/brokenpromises/)

Kerry-Edwards Positions

War on Terror
Victory requires:
1. The ability and willingness to direct immediate, effective military action to capture or destroy terrorist groups and their leaders
2. A massive strengthening in intelligence gathering, analysis, and coordination coupled with vigorous law enforcement
3. A relentless effort to shut down the flow of terrorist funds
4. A global effort to prevent weak and failed states that can become sanctuaries for terrorists
5. A sustained effort to deny terrorists any more recruits by working for peace, promoting democracy, economic growth and development, and improved education, and by conducting effective public diplomacy

National Security
1. Forge new era of international alliances
2. Modernize military
3. Fully deploy other defense assets-diplomacy, intelligence, economic power, values and ideas
4, Free America from dependence on Mideast oil

Intelligence
1. Restore credibility of intelligence by isolating it from political pressures
2. Create cabinet-level Director of National Intelligence post
3. Structure intelligence gathering around key threats
4. Transform intelligence agencies to make sure they have the resources to deal with today's threats

Money laundering for terrorism purposes
1. Impose tough sanctions against nations who fail to act
2. Strengthen domestic laundering laws
3. Create a "name and shame" campaign against nations who are refusing to respond to terror
4. Take a tough line against Saudi Arabian "charities" which aid terror groups like al-Qaeda

Afghanistan
1. Expand NATO presence outside Kabul
2. Identify and destroy al-Qaeda training sites
3. Accelerate training for Afghan army and police
4. Expand program to integrate warlords into mainstream Afghan society
5. Double counter-narcotics assistance to Karzai government

Improving diplomacy
1. Undertake a major initiative to support voices of freedom in Muslim countries
2. Lead an international effort to build schools and social service institutions there
3. Support human rights groups, labor unions, independent media there
4. Reward governments who assist in this approach

Strengthening military
1. Expand active duty force by 40,000
2. Double the Army's Special Forces capability
3. Add special operations helicopter squadron to Air Force
4. Increase by 50% troops trained in post-conflict reconstruction
5. Increase military police
6. Add 500 psychological-operations personnel and increase foreign language training

Modernizing military
1. Modernize communications technology
2, Create "anti-proliferation" units trained and equipped to find and destroy nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons
3. Train troops how to deal effectively with civilian populations
4. Increase robotic capability to minimize risk to troops

Military family "Bill of Rights"
1. Commitment to full mandatory funding of veterans' health care
2. Hazardous duty compensation
3. Family separation allowances
4. Up-to-date and accurate information to families regarding deployments
5. Financial aid for families experiencing extended deployments
6. Guarantee adequate housing for military families
7. Full access for all military personnel to Defense Dept.'s TRICARE healthcare system
8. Full funding for the DOD's schools serving military families (Bush seeks to cut)
9. $250,000 gratuity to families of servicemembers killed in combat zone
10. Double period in which families of killed servicemembers can continue to live in military housing
11. End military "disability tax" which forces disabled vets to surrender a dollar of pension for every dollar in disability they receive

Homeland Security
1.Assign National Guard units to a standing task force on Homeland Security commanded by a NG general

Protecting against nuclear terrorism
1. Use strong diplomacy to secure radioactive material in the former Soviet Union within four years
2. Secure radioactive material at research institutions throughout the world within four years
3. Establish global standards for safeguarding nuclear material and provide assistance where needed to help countries meet these safeguards
4. Accelerate timetable for joint US-Russia nuclear weapons reduction
5. Work with Russia to convert weapons-grade material into less-dangerous reactor-grade material and to dispose of plutonium safely
6. End US development of new "bunker buster" nuclear weapons
7. Focus diplomatic efforts on ensuring peace between India and Pakistan

North Korea
1. Work toward negotiating with North Korea a verifiable end to their weapons program
2. Continue current six-nation negotiations but be willing to engage Pyongyand in direct bilateral talks

Global nuclear proliferation
1. Offer Tehran and other countries developing new nuclear programs enough free fuel to meet energy needs in response to a commitment to shut down enrichment and processing facilities
2. Work with international community to enact strict import-export controls on transfer of materials
3. Work with UN to outlaw trade in the material and technologies of nuclear weapons
4. Increase participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative which provides for inspection of shipments
5. Appoint a Presidential Coordinator to direct the efforts at securing nuclear material around the world

Iraq
1. Stable and secure environment is immediate priority
2. Fully internationalize the coalition
3. Persuade NATO to deploy a "significant portion" of force needed to maintain peace
4. Convene a regional conference with Iraq's neighbors to secure a commitment of non-interference in Iraqi internal affairs

Israeli-Palestinian conflict
1. Work to transform the Palestinian Authority to promote new and responsible leadership
2. Support the creation of a democratic Palestinian state
3.1949 armistice lines are unrealistic, but all sides must agree to the final status
4. Work to end financing of Palestinian terror and propaganda organizations

Africa
1. Support extension of African Growth and Opportunity Act

Asia
1. Committed to "One China" policy
2. Continue to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons

Northern Ireland
1. Work to help acheive full implementation of the "Good Friday" agreement

Immigration
1. Give illegal aliens who have worked here for five years, paid taxes, and clear security safeguards a path to citizenship

Cuba
1. Support peaceful strategies to end the Castro regime and promote democracy

Global Health
1. Double AIDS/Tuberculosis/Malaria funding to $30 billion by 2008

Homeland Security
1. Improve ability to gather and share information
2. Better secure our airports, borders, and seaports
3. Harden likely terrorist targets such as nuclear plants, chemical plants, subways, and railways
4. Improve domestic readiness
5. Improve detection equipment in shipping systems
6. Ensure private companies have adequate information about items they are shipping
7. Work with other nations to increase inspections of seaborne cargo
8. Tighten inspections of air cargo
9. Improve airport screening process
10. More border personnel to improve screening process, speed up commerce
11. Provide assistance to local police and fire departments
12. Modernize emergency warning system
13. Enlist citizens in a "21st Century Neighborhood Watch" effort
14. Put one person in charge of national anti-bioterrorism efforts
15. Work with state and local leaders to establish benchmarks for preparedness
16. Improve monitoring of disease outbreaks
17. Create a "Medical Arsenal of Democracy" to speed drug and vaccine development

Energy independence
- Farmers will spend an additional $1.3 billion on gas this year, truck drivers will spend an additional $5 billion, and airlines will spend an additional $4.5 billion on jet fuel
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
Minimize dependence on foreign oil by:
1. Exploring and developing new energy sources
2. Improving energy efficiency and developing renewable energy technologies
3. Diversifying existing energy sources and reducing prices.
4. Expand the Production Tax Credit for wind and biomass energy to cover the full array of renewable energy sources
5. Increase Department of Energy research into renewable energy sources and their applications
6. Create a new public-private partnership to help finance renewable energy research and development in the private sector
7. Expand the use of renewable fuels to power our cars, trucks, and SUVs. We will put 100,000 hydrogen-fueled vehicles on the road by 2010, and 2.5 million by 2020
8. Increase the use of renewable fuels such as ethanol to 5 billion gallons by 2012. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, by 2012, the standard would add $156 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), spur $5.3 billion new capital investments, and create 214,000 new jobs. In rural America, the RFS would mean an increase of $1.3 billion in annual farm income.
9. Expand federally sponsored research into renewable fuels for automobiles
10. Create a Hydrogen Institute to unite scientists and researchers in the drive to accelerate hydrogen fuel cell and other advanced fuel technology

Energy efficiency
1. Cut the federal government’s energy bills by 20 percent by 2020, saving an estimated $14 billion for taxpayers
2. Challenge and help state and local governments, corporations, universities, hospitals, and small businesses to meet the same 20 percent energy efficiency goal
3. Provide tax incentives for “smart building” practices to spur energy-efficient construction and renovation methods
4. Update and strengthen our fuel-efficiency standards
5. Create new tax incentives for automakers to build the new, more efficient automobiles of the future
6. Provide tax incentives for families to purchase more energy-efficient cars, trucks, and SUVs

Electrical production
1. Mandatory, enforceable reliability standards for our electric grid that will help avoid blackouts
2. Public-private partnerships to make power systems more flexible, resilient, and self-healing—and more environmentally friendly

Clean coal
1. Invest $10 billion over the next decade to transform the current generation of coal-fired utility plants into cleaner and more energy-efficient plants
2. Develop new technologies to generate clean electric power from coal
3. Employ flexible, market-based strategies to reduce utility plant emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide while rewarding companies that develop new and cleaner technologies

Reducing prices of existing fuel resources
1. Temporarily suspend the Bush administration’s practice of “topping off” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until prices decrease
2. Aggressively “jawbone” oil producing nations to keep production levels high enough to stabilize oil and gasoline prices.
3. Develop domestic supplies in areas already open for exploration, including the western and central Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve
4. Work to increase the availability of oil from countries outside the OPEC cartel, including Russia, Canada, and certain areas of Africa

Natural gas
1. Pursue a North American Energy Initiative, a long-term partnership with Canada and Mexico to develop and expand our natural gas reserves
2. Speed construction of an Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline to help move the 35 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas reserves on the North Slope of Alaska into the U.S. marketplace
3.Ensure a fair and well-functioning natural gas market to prevent abuses and supply shortages like those that recently threatened blackouts and huge price spikes in the western United States

Jobs
- In February 2002, the Bush administration said America would create nearly 6 million jobs by mid-2004. Instead, to date, the economy has lost more than 1 million private-sector jobs--7 million short (first presidential term without net job creation since that of Depression era's Herbert Hoover).
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. $1,500 loss in income for the average family over last three years
2. 75 percent of the new jobs being created today are in low-wage industries and are 13 percent less likely to offer health care benefits. New jobs pay an average of $9,000 less
3. Plan--to lay a foundation that will help our economy create 10 million new jobs over the first four years, based on the proven economic policies of the 1990s—policies that created nearly 23 million jobs over eight years.
4. Cut tax rates for 99 percent of taxpaying U.S. businesses by using the savings from ending deferral and offshore tax havens to cut corporate tax rates by five percent
5. Close the foreign tax deferral loophole that encourages companies to send jobs overseas
6. Jump start job creation with a New Jobs Tax Credit to give manufacturers, other business affected by outsourcing, and small businesses a break on federal payroll taxes for every new job created in America
7. Eliminate capital gains for start-up investments in small businesses
8. Invest in initiatives to create high-technology manufacturing “clusters” around research institutions
9. Help small manufacturers innovate and grow through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Advanced Technology Program, which the Bush administration has sought to shut down

Global trade
- One in every five American factory jobs depends on exports
- Free and fair trade means truly open markets where American companies compete on a level playing field.

Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. To complete a comprehensive review of all existing trade agreements within the first 120 days of our administration
2. Aggressively pursue the remedies available through the World Trade Organization and under domestic trade laws to stop violations of those agreements and unfair trade practices
3. Increase international pressure on China to end its manipulation of currency rates, which are subsidizing Chinese exports while inhibiting other countries’ access to rapidly growing Chinese domestic markets
4. Support international efforts to crack down on abuses of workers’ rights and halt the exploitation of child labor
5. Protect the intellectual property rights of U.S. businesses and inventors against commercial pirates and fight for U.S. access to key closed-off foreign market sectors, such as the Japanese auto market and Chinese high technology markets
6. Build upon and strengthen the progress made by President Clinton in the Jordan agreement to include strong and enforceable internationally recognized labor and environmental standards in the core of new free trade agreements
7. Expand trade adjustment assistance to help employees who lose their jobs because of global economic changes, including workers in the service sector

Fiscal discipline
- President has proposed or passed tax cuts and spending increases that would increase the deficit by more than $6 trillion over the next decade
- Deficits are financed by borrowing from Social Security Trust Fund surpluses at a time when the retirement of the baby boom generation makes that very risky
- Budget deficit will continue to increase by an average of 2.3 percent of GDP annually, driving longterm interest rates up more than a full point every year
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Cut the budget deficit in half within four years
2. Repeal President Bush’s tax cuts benefiting those earning over $200,000 a year while expanding middle-class tax cuts
3. Bring back “pay-as-you-go” budget rules that require Congress to come up with offsets to pay for new spending or tax cut initiatives
4. Bring back tough caps on domestic discretionary spending, reinforced by mandatory across-the-board cuts, if necessary, so that total discretionary spending, outside security and education, grows no faster than inflation
5. Reduce the number of government contractors by 100,000
6. Freeze the federal travel budget
7. Reform student loan programs to eliminate guaranteed, government-provided profits for banks
8. Enact the Kerry-McCain proposal for a Corporate Subsidy Commission to identify wasteful and economically inefficient corporate welfare items and force Congress to deal with them on a single, up-or-down vote
9. Eliminate corporate tax loopholes, like the ones Enron used, which enable companies to avoid paying their fair share
10. Create a constitutionally acceptable line-item veto power, to enable the president to kill pork-barrel projects unless Congress specifically re-enacts them

Taxes and the economy
- Today, the average American family is earning less than in 2000. Health care costs are up one-half, college tuition is up by one-third, child care costs have risen more than twice as fast as inflation
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Reset tax rates for families making more than $200,000 to the same level they were under Bill Clinton--will cut taxes for 98% of individuals and 99% of companies
2. Make the middle-class tax cuts permanent
3. Tax credits to help families afford health care, including tax credits for small businesses
4. A tax credit to make four years of college affordable to all Americans. Specifically, a tax credit on $4,000 of tuition for all four years of college
5. A tax credit to make child care more affordable, cutting taxes by $800 for the typical middle-class family with two children in child care
6. Raise the minimum wage to $7.00 an hour by 2007
7. Defend and strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), increasing the reward to work for the most hard-pressed families and lifting millions out of poverty
8. Invest in programs like Youthbuild that educate and prepare disadvantaged young people for jobs

Working women
- 61% earn minimum wage
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Raise minimum wage to dollar-adjusted 1966 amount ($8.40). 1.4 million working mothers who will benefit

Tomorrow's economy
1. Boost the research budgets at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy, all of which have lost critical research resources during the Bush administration
2. Support the Advanced Technology Program which helps finance high-potential projects that struggle to obtain private-sector financing
3. Extend the Research and Development Tax Credit for private R&D efforts
4. Restore the scientific integrity of federal science review panels, which the Bush administration has often stacked with political appointees
5. Invest aggressively in biotechnology research
6. Reverse the Bush administration’s ban on federally supported stem cell research which could soon produce cures for diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease, and cancer

The internet
- Over the past four years, the United States has dropped from 4th to 10th in broadband use
- South Korea and Japan are now deploying networks that are 20 to 50 times faster than America's.
- Advancing the transition to high-speed broadband will expand the economy by $500 billion (Brookings Institution)
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Make broadband universally accessible by providing tax credits for rural and underserved areas and the next generation of high-speed broadband
2. Provide broadband to all first responders by the end of 2006
3. Take action to “can spam” and ensure online privacy to grow the digital economy
4. Support efforts to create “digital signatures” that will make e-commerce vastly more secure and convenient

Education
- In America, 60,000 engineers graduate a year—about one-tenth the number produced by India and China
- 3 in 10 young people do not finish high school
- After signing the No Child Left Behind Act, Bush promptly broke his word, providing schools $27 billion less than he had promised
- Tried to cut financial aid for 84,000 students
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Raise teacher pay, especially in the schools and subjects where great teachers are in the shortest supply
2. Improve mentoring, professional development, and new technology training for teachers, instead of leaving teachers to sink or swim
3. Create rigorous new tests for new teachers
4. Provide higher pay for teachers who have extra skills and excel in helping children learn
5. Ensure fast, fair procedures for improving or removing teachers who do not perform well on the job, while preserving protections from arbitrary dismissal
6. Offer a College Opportunity Tax Credit on $4,000 of tuition for all four years of college
7. Simplify the student aid process, with shorter forms and better information about how to get aid
8. Offer states $10 billion for higher education, if they will keep tuition increases in line with inflation for the next two years
9. Create a small but strategic College Completion Fund that rewards colleges for graduating more of the students who have the highest risk of dropping out
10. Improve math and science teaching in our high schools, by giving teachers special training and partnering schools with colleges and science-based businesses
11. Double National Science Foundation scholarships for graduate studies in math, science, and engineering
12. Create a national campaign to attract women and minorities into math and science studies beginning in middle school
13. Create a national campaign to attract women and minorities into math and science studies beginning in middle school
14. Help parents by expanding afterschool opportunities to another 2 million children, through a “School’s Open ’Til 6” plan

Health care
- 44 million Americans have no health insurance at all
- Health insurance has increased by more than $2,600 for the typical family over the last three years
- Total health care costs increased four times as fast as wages in the last year alone
- Prescription drug spending has more than doubled during the past five years
- In 2004, American taxpayers are expected to pay $41 billion dollars for “uncompensated care”
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Health insurance for every child in America. The federal government will pay the full costs for the 20 million children in the Medicaid program
2. Kids will be signed up automatically at hospitals, community health centers, and schools
3. $5 billion in enrollment bonuses will be available to states as an incentive to find uninsured children and keep them covered
4. Provide low and moderate income Americans age 55-64 with a 25 percent tax credit to help pay premiums
5. Help low and moderate income Americans between jobs by offering them a 75 percent tax credit to help pay their premiums
6. Offer small businesses a tax credit that covers up to 50 percent of their premium contribution for low- to moderate income employees
7. Low-to-moderate income individuals whose employers do not provide them with coverage will get a tax credit to help pay the cost of participating in the Congressional Health Plan

Keeping down health costs
- One quarter of all our health care spending pays for preparing, submitting, calculating, paying, and collecting medical bills ($30 billion)
- Settling a single transaction in the health care system can cost up to $25, while banks pay less than a penny per transaction
Kerry-Edwards Plan:
1. Federal government will pick up 75 percent of the cost of catastrophic health claims for employers who agree:
a. To provide quality coverage for their employees
b. To share savings from lower premiums with their employees
c. To adopt disease management programs and other incentives to improve overall employee health and reduce costs
2. Require private insurers who do business with the federal government to adopt advanced information systems to manage medical records and financial book-keeping
3. Give health care providers bonuses for streamlining paperwork and using electronic medical record and billing systems
4. Establish a goal to ensure that all Americans have secure, private medical records by 2008

Combating inadequate care
1. Provide financial incentives to help providers and purchasers improve quality, including upfront capital investments for enhancing infrastructure in hospitals and other medical facilities
2. Reward health care organizations and physicians with financial bonuses for investing in modern information systems
3. Provide economic incentives to encourage the use of computers in prescribing medicine, (can reduce medication errors by 80 percent)
4. Making medical errors transparent by changing the culture and habits in health care so that errors and patient injuries are immediately discovered and disclosed to prevent them from happening again

Malpractice insurance reform
1. Oppose punitive damages except in cases where intentional misconduct, gross negligence, or reckless indifference to life can be established
2. Require that individuals making medical malpractice claims first go before a qualified medical specialist to make sure a reasonable grievance exists
3. Require states to ensure the availability of non-binding mediation in all malpractice claims before cases proceed to trial
4. Support sanctions against plaintiffs and lawyers who bring frivolous medical malpractice claims, including a “three strikes and you’re out” provision preventing lawyers who file three frivolous cases from bringing another suit for 10 years
5. Eliminate the special privileges that allow insurance companies to fix prices and collude in ways that increase medical malpractice premiums

Prescription drugs
1. Give Americans access to the discounts available in Canada and other countries by allowing re-importation of safe, FDA-approved prescription drugs
2. End artificial barriers to the availability of less expensive generic drugs
3. Require the federal government to negotiate better prices for prescription drugs through programs like Medicare
4. Demand disclosure of real costs and profits from the pharmacy benefit managers who control drug benefits for more than 200 million Americans under both public and private health plans
5. Give states incentives to negotiate better drug prices for participants in Medicaid and state employee health plans
6. Overhaul the new Medicare drug benefit to ensure that seniors are not forced into HMOs

Senior health care
1. Ensure quality care throughout Medicare in every part of the country
2. Give seniors a meaningful choice in health plans, and not coerce them into HMOs
3. Ensure quality nursing home care with adequate inspections, faster reimbursements, and better training for nursing home workers
4. Oppose efforts to abandon the national commitment to long-term care by cutting Medicaid or forcing states to take over key aspects of the program
5. Let Medicaid pay for home and community-based care options
6. Give caregivers involved in long-term care greater access to information, training, respite and counseling services

Patients' Bill of Rights
Guarantee patients:
1. A right to see the specialists they need
2. A right to real emergency protections
3. A real external appeals process that allows patients to appeal an HMO decision
4. Whistleblower protections that allow health care workers to report quality problems without fear of retaliation

(Source: Kerry, Edwards Our Plan for America: Stronger At Home, Respected in the World)

Kerry-Edwards Endorsements

National Organizations:
Amalgamated Transit Union
American Federation of Government Employees
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Federation of Teachers
American Nurses Association
Communications Workers of America
International Association of EMT's and Paramedics
International Association of Fire Fighters
International Brotherhood of Police Officers
League of Conservation Voters
NARAL Pro Choice America
National Farmers Union Political Action Committee
National Treasury Employees Union
Planned Parenthood
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union
Sheet Metal Workers' International Union
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
The Sierra Club
United Farm Workers of America
United Mine Workers of America
Utility Workers Union of America

Media:
Akron Beacon Journal
Albany Times Union
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boston Globe
Boston Herald
Boston Herald
Boston Phoenix
Cleveland Plain Dealer
New York Daily News
New York Times
Newsday
Portsmouth Herald
San Bernardino Daily Sun
San Francisco Chronicle
Santa Fe New Mexican
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The Detroit Free Press
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Baltimore Sun
The Los Angeles Daily News

Local Organizations:
Chicago Teamsters, Local 705
Houston Professional Fire Fighters, Local 341
Massachusetts Nurses Association
Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local Chapter 1199
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1445
Washington State Firefighters