Transcript source:
Fox News
[Question 13:] Jane Barrow
BARROW: Senator Kerry, how can the U.S. be competitive in manufacturing given -- in manufacturing, excuse me -- given the wage necessary and comfortably accepted for American workers to maintain the standard of living that they expect?
[KERRY]
Jane, there are a lot of ways to be competitive. And unfortunately again I regret this administration has not seized them and embraced them. Let me give you an example.
There is a tax loophole right now. If you're a company in St. Louis working, trying to make jobs here, there is actually an incentive for you to go away. You get more money, you keep more of your taxes by going abroad.
I'm going to shut that loophole, and I'm going to give the tax benefit to the companies that stay here in America to help make them more competitive.
Secondly, we're going to create a manufacturing jobs credit and a new jobs credit for people to be able to help hire and be more competitive here in America.
Third, what's really hurting American business more than anything else is the cost of health care.
Now, you didn't hear any plan from the president, because he doesn't have a plan to lower the cost of health care.
Five million Americans have lost their health care; 620,000 Missourians have no health care at all; 96,000 Missourians have lost their health care under President Bush.
I have a plan to cover those folks. And it's a plan that lowers cost for everybody, covers all children. And the way I pay for it -- I'm not fiscally irresponsible -- is I roll back the tax cut this president so fiercely wants to defend, the one for him and me and Charlie.
I think you ought to get the break. I want to lower your cost to health care. I want to fully fund education, No Child Left Behind, special-needs education. And that's how we're going to be more competitive, by making sure our kids are graduating from school and college.
China and India are graduating more graduates in technology and science than we are.
We've got to create the products of the future. That's why I have a plan for energy independence within 10 years.
And we're going to put our laboratories and our colleges and our universities to work. And we're going to get the great entrepreneurial spirit of this country, and we're going to free ourselves from this dependency on Mideast oil.
That's how you create jobs and become competitive.
[Bush] 1 1/2 minute Rebuttal
Let me start with how to control the cost of health care: medical liability reform, for starters, which he's opposed.
Secondly, allow small businesses to pool together so they can share risk and buy insurance at the same discounts big businesses get to do.
Thirdly, spread what's called health savings accounts. It's good for small businesses, good for owners. You own your own account. You can save tax-free. You get a catastrophic plan to help you on it.
This is different from saying, "OK, let me incent you to go on the government."
He's talking about his plan to keep jobs here. You know he calls it an outsourcing to keep -- stop outsourcing. Robert Rubin looked at his plan and said it won't work.
The best way to keep jobs here in America is, one, have an energy plan. I proposed one to the Congress two years ago, encourages conservation, encourages technology to explore for environmentally friendly ways for coal -- to use coal and gas. It encourages the use of renewables like ethanol and biodiesel.
It's stuck in the Senate. He and his running-mate didn't show up to vote when they could have got it going in the Senate.
Less regulations if we want jobs here; legal reform if we want jobs here; and we've got to keep taxes low.
Now, he says he's only going to tax the rich. Do you realize, 900,000 small businesses will be taxed under his plan because most small businesses are Subchapter S corps or limited partnerships, and they pay tax at the individual income tax level.
And so when you're running up the taxes like that, you're taxing job creators, and that's not how you keep jobs here.
[Kerry] extended question
GIBSON: Senator, I want to extend for a minute, you talk about tax cuts to stop outsourcing. But when you have IBM documents that I saw recently where you can hire a programmer for $12 in China, $56 an hour here, tax credits won't cut it.
You can't stop all outsourcing, Charlie. I've never promised that. I'm not going to, because that would be pandering. You can't.
But what you can do is create a fair playing field, and that's what I'm talking about.
But let me just address what the president just said.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's just not true what he said. The Wall Street Journal said 96 percent of small businesses are not affected at all by my plan.
And you know why he gets that count? The president got $84 from a timber company that owns, and he's counted as a small business. Dick Cheney's counted as a small business. That's how they do things. That's just not right.
[Bush] extended question rebuttal
BUSH: I own a timber company?
(LAUGHTER)
That's news to me.
(LAUGHTER)
Need some wood?
(LAUGHTER)
Most small businesses are Subchapter S corps. They just are.
I met Grant Milliron, Mansfield, Ohio. He's creating jobs. Most small businesses -- 70 percent of the new jobs in America are created by small businesses.
Taxes are going up when you run up the top two brackets. It's a fact.
[Olbermann] from Olbermann has some nice comments
Round thirteen: Kerry receives from Jean Barrow on how America can remain competitive in manufacturing. Are we sure these are uncommitted voters? Torn from today's headlines of 18,000 jobs lost in manufacturing last month. Kerry misses Bush weak spot. Veers back into health care. Kerry in defensive mode, invokes Gibson's salary again. Misses chance to score heavily. Bush out of his corner and answers by mutual insurance and other plans for small business. Bush scores by claiming Clinton Labor Guru Robert Rubin said Kerry's plan wouldn't work. Point to Bush. A flurry from Bush on Kerry and Edwards missing votes, but confuses with references to S-Corps. Gibson extends, pushes Kerry on stopping outsourcing via tax credits. Kerry responds cleanly with confession that he can't stop outsourcing. Bush up strongly with response that he doesn't know that he owns $84 worth of a timber company. Point to Bush, pending review.
[Question 14:] props to ATinNM who wrote this section
45 days after 9/11 congress passed the Patriot Act which takes away checks on law enforcement and weakens American citizens rights and freedoms, especially 4th amendment rights. With the expansions of the Patriot Act and Patriot Act II my question to you is: Why are my rights being watered down, and my citizens around me, and what is the civic justification for these reforms.
[Bush] 2 minute response
I appreciate that. I really don’t think your rights are being watered down. As a matter of fact I wouldn’t support it if I thought that. Every action being taken against terrorists requires a court order, requires scrutiny. As a matter of fact the tools now given to the terrorist fighters are the same tools that we have been using against drug dealers and white collar criminals. {?} I think however is the President must guard your liberties, must not erode your rights, in America. The Patriot is necessary, for example, because parts of the FBI couldn’t talk to each other. The Intelligence gathering and law the enforcement arms of the FBI just couldn’t share intelligence under the old law. And that didn’t make any sense. Our law enforcement must have every tool necessary to find and disrupt terrorists at home and abroad before they hurt us again. That’s the task of the 21st Century. So I don’t think the Patriot Act abridges your rights at all. And I know it’s necessary, I can remember being in upstate New York talking to FBI agents that helped bust the Lackawana cell up there and they told me they could not have preformed their duty, the duty we all expect of them, if they did not have the ability to communicate with each other under the Patriot Act.
[Kerry] 1 1/2 minute Rebuttal
Former Gov. Roscoe is the Chairman of the Republican Party said he thought the Patriot Act has to be changed and fixed. Congressman Jim Sisbrender (sp?) the Chairman of the House Judicary Committee has said, Over his dead body before it gets renewed without it being thoroughly re-checked. A whole bunch of folks in America concerned about the Patriot Act and the way it has been applied. In fact, the Inspector General of the Justice Department found that John Ashcroft had twice applied in ways that were inappropriate. People’s rights have been abused. I met a man who spent 8 months in prison and wasn’t even allowed to even call his lawyer, wasn’t allowed to … Finally, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois intervened and was able to get him out. This is in our country folks, the United States of America. They’ve got sneak and peek searches that are allowed. They’ve got people going into churches and political meetings without any showing of potential criminal activity or otherwise. Now I voted for the Patriot Act. 99 United States Senators voted for it and the President has been very busy running around the country using what I just described to you as a reason to say I’m wishy-washy, that I’m a flip flopper. Now that’s not a flip-flop. I believe in the Patriot Act. We need the things in it that coordinate the FBI and the CIA. We need to be stronger on terrorism. But do you know what we also need to do as Americans? Is to never let the terrorist change the constitution of the United States of America in a way that disadvantages our rights
Useful references on question 14
Kerry Calls for New and Improved Patriot Act
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/pr_2004_0525b_a.pdf
Kerry Statement Response to President Radio's Address
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0417a.html
BUSH ATTACK: “On the war on terror: Weaken the Patriot Act used to arrest terrorists and protect America. And he wanted to delay defending American until the United Nations approved. John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense."
FACT: You can sum up the problems with the Patriot Act in two words: John Ashcroft.
John Kerry stands by his vote for the Patriot Act. In fact, he authored most of the money laundering provisions in the law. He even wants to strengthen some aspects of it relating to terrorism, such as improving intelligence information sharing.
Kerry also supported a “sunset clause” in the law to see if it strikes the right balance between security and civil liberties. There are some places – such as unlimited ‘sneak and peek’ searches where Kerry believes we need stricter oversight and protections against invasions of privacy.
But, the real problem with the Patriot Act is not the law, but the abuse of the law. John Ashcroft has used police powers in secret ways and for political purposes - authorized his agents to monitor church meetings and political rallies without any cause and without the need to get approval. Thirteen FAA employees and a high-tech Homeland Security tracking system were used to help Tom Delay track down Texas State Legislators who were resisting his plan to give Republicans more seats in Congress.
Reforming the Patriot Act. The spirit of the law has been abused by the Ashcroft Justice Department, which has taken every opportunity to limit freedom and civil liberties. Given these abuses, John Kerry believes it is necessary to scale back several provisions in the Patriot Act and introduce a new law to assure our enhanced security does not come at the expense of our civil liberties, such as more oversight of sneak and peak searches.
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0311c.html
Building Bridges to the American Muslim Community
Calls for ending the era of Ashcroft and amendment of the Patriot Act
http://www.johnkerry.com/communities/arab_americans/building_bridges.pdf
From: http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/9600954.htm
Tuesday Sept 7, 2004
Democrat John Kerry: "We're going to crush the terrorists and make sure that here at home and around the world we have every tool to go get them before they get us. As president, I will defend our liberty and our security at home as well as abroad. I will appoint an attorney general who values and protects constitutional freedoms. I believe some provisions of the Patriot Act - like the money laundering provisions - must be made stronger. Others - like the library and 'sneak-and-peek' search provisions - must be made smarter, to better protect the freedom of law-abiding patriotic Americans while allowing our government to do everything necessary to track down terrorists and defend America. As president, I will ensure that the American government is open and responsive to the needs and inquiries of Congress and the public, offering enough information to hold the government accountable without compromising our security."
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props to Gryn for the list
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