Kerry's 2 minute answer:
I have a tax cut - here's my tax cut: I raise the childcare credit by $1000 for families. I have a $4K tuition credit to parents and kids to pay for college. And I lower cost of healthcare as I described.
Every part of my program I've shown how I will pay for. And I've gotten good people like former secretary of treasury Bob Rubin who showed how to balance budgets to help me crunch these numbers and make them work.
I've even scaled back some of my favorite programs already to make them work, like the childcare program I wanted to fund, and the national service program, because the President's deficit keeps growing. And I've said as a pledge, I'm going to cut the deficit in half over four years.
I'm going to restore what we did in the 90s - pay as you go. We're going to do it like you do it. The President broke the pay-as-you-go rule. Someone here asked a good question: 'why haven't you vetoed something?' If you care about something, why don't you veto it? I think John McCain called the energy bill the 'no lobbyist left behind' bill. You've gotta stand up and fight somewhere, folks.
I'm pledging I will not raise taxes, I am giving a tax cut to people earning <$200K. Now, to the people >$200K, you're going to see a rollback to where we were with Bill Clinton. I suspect there are only three people here who are going to be affected -- the President, me, and Charlie, I'm sorry, you too.
Of course he's going to raise your taxes. See, he's proposing $2.2trillion in new spending and you say 'how are you going to pay for it?' He said well, he's going to raise the taxes on the rich. OK that raises -- he says $800 billion, we say $600 billion. You got battling green eyeshades. Somewhere in between those numbers. And so there's a difference between what he promised and what he can raise.
Now either he's going to break all these wonderful promises he's told you about, or he's going to raise taxes. And I suspect given his record, he's going to raise taxes.
I think the way to grow this economy is to keep taxes low, to have an energy plan, to have litigation reform. We just got a report that said over the past 13 months we create 1.9 million jobs. We're growing. So the fundamental question of this campaign is how we're going to keep this economy growing so people can work. That's the fundamental question.
Kerry response: First of all the President's figures of $2.2 trillion aren't accurate - those are fuzzy math figures put together by some group that works for the campaign.
Second, John McCain and I have a proposal jointly for a commission that closes corporate giveaway loopholes. We've got $40 billion going to Bermuda, all kinds of giveaways. We ought to be shutting those down.
Third, credible? In 1985 I was one of the first democrats to move to balance the budget and voted to balance it in 85 and 87 and we did it.
Bush's 2 minute answer:
I fought for a strong title in the farm bill for the conservation reserve program to set aside millions of acres of land to preserve wildlife and the habitat.
We proposed a healthy forests bill which is essential in western states to make sure our forests were protected. What happens in those forest, because of lousy federal policy they are not harvested, not taken care of. As a result they're like tinderboxes. And over the last summers I've flown over there. So this is a reasonable policy to protect old stands of trees and at the same time make sure our forests aren't vulnerable to the forest fires that have destroyed acres after acres in the west. We've got a good common sense policy.
What I really think is going to happen over time is technology will change the way we live for the good of the environment. That's why I proposed the hydrogen generated automobile. We're spending $1 billion to come up with the technology to do that. It's why I'm big proponent of clean coal technology, to use coal but in a clean way. I guess you'd say I"m a good steward of the land.
The quality of air's cleaner since I've been president. Fewer water complaints. More land restored. Thank you for your question.
Number one, don't throw labels around. Labels don't mean anything. I supported welfare reform. I led the fight to put 100K cops on streets of America. I have been for faith-based initiatives for years. I broke with my party in 85 to fight for a balanced budget when it was heresy. Labels don't fit.
When it comes to the environment, this is one of the worst administrations in modern history. The "Clear Skies Bill" is one of those orwelian names you pull out of the sky, slap it on something like "No Child Left Behind" then leave millions of children behind. Here they're leaving the skies and the environment behind. If they just left the Clean Air Act all alone today, no change, the air would be cleaner than if you past the Clear Skies Act.
In fact, his environmental enforcement chief air quality person at the EPA resigned in protest to what they're doing to the new source performance standards for air quality.
They're going backward on the definition for wetland. Backwards on water quality. Pulled out of the Global warming, declared it dead. Didn't even accept the science.
I'm going to be the President who believes in science.
And I just told you the facts, sir. The quality of the air is better since I've been President of the United States. And we'll continue to spend money on research and development because I truly believe that's how we'll get from how we live today to being able to live a standard of living we're accustomed to and being able to protect our environment better, the use of technologies.
You wonder, Nikki, why it is that people don't like us in some parts of the world. You just say "hey we don't agree with you, goodbye." The President's done nothing to try to fix it. I will.
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