Senator
Woos Cleveland Dems
By John Byrne
An animated John Kerry, junior Democratic senator from Massachusetts,
delivered a scathing critique of the Bush Administration’s
economic policies Tuesday during a speech to the Cleveland City
Club.
“They have chosen tax giveaways that reward the wealthiest
Americans over tax cuts for everyday working Americans now,”
he said. “They have chosen to throw large tax giveaways at
the largest companies, instead of helping to grow small businesses.”
Joined by former Ohio Senator John Glenn, Kerry spoke to the crème
de la crème of Cleveland’s Democratic Party elite,
bemoaning Bush’s approach to corporate responsibility.
“While the President talks tough about corporate accountability,
his administration has worked tirelessly to undermine reform and
sabotage any meaningful oversight of the accounting industry,”
he said. “He even tried to cut next year’s budget for
the SEC by $200 million — further weakening enforcement of
corporate infractions.”
Kerry, the latest Democrat to weigh a presidential run, outlined
his own policies and seemed at times to actually have declared his
candidacy. And, in response to a question of whether Al Gore’s
running would affect his own campaign, he replied, “It is
not contingent at all.”
Kerry proposes that all Americans receive a payroll tax “holiday”
on the first $10,000 of earnings for one year, which would benefit
most those with limited incomes.
“Every worker in America would immediately receive a $765
tax cut and every two-income family would get revenue of $1,530,”
he said.
Kerry rebuked Republicans who have bedeviled attempts to raise the
federal minimum wage.
“Even as the American worker has increased productivity almost
75 percent in the last three decades, you would have to raise the
minimum wage to $8.14 an hour just to restore the purchasing power
that it had 33 years ago,” he said. “And all we’re
trying to do, which they refuse to do, is get it up to $6.55.”
Kerry also called on members of his generation to stand up to the
plate of leadership in environmental and economic policy. He decried
the Bush Administration’s capitulation to special interests
in Washington.
“We were presented with a defense bill that gave away $250,000
to an Illinois firm to research caffeinated chewing gum; $750,000
for grasshopper research in Alaska; $250,000 for a lettuce geneticist
in Salinas, California, and $64,000 for urban pest research in Georgia,”
he said. “That’s our defense bill?”
In addition, he suggested that the Congress adopt a “Corporate
Subsidy Reform Commission,” which would ensure that special
interests do not receive undue consideration in spending bills.
He also adamantly called for an end to allowing companies to mine
on federally owned land for free.
Kerry also declared that the time to work on a sound energy policy,
and improve more efficient transportation infrastructure, is long
overdue.
“They think we can drill our way out of our energy problems
– they stand pat as $1.8 billion in federal largesse is lavished
on oil and gas while alternative energies compete for the scraps
of a mere $24 million in federal venture capital,” he said.
“And they remain content to let hardworking Americans be held
hostage by a handful of nations that rig the world’s oil market.”
Instead, he said that America must invest in technologies of the
future to create new jobs and revive American ingenuity.
“Since developing new energy technologies is a research-requiring,
pathbreaking activity, we can create thousands of well-paying new
jobs,” he said.
Further, he argued that America must bring its transportation up
to date, which would create new jobs and improve energy efficiency.
“To excite a generation, we should build high speed rail where
it is feasible,” he said. “Why should we lag behind
France, Germany and Japan?”
Kerry drew out the differences between his proposed candidacy and
that of Bush, asserting that America “has a choice between
two competing visions.”
“The Bush Administration sees an America where tax cuts for
the wealthy are the only priority, even if they prevent any real
investments for economic progress, hurt the budget and violate the
very value of fairness,” he said. “I see an American
where every working family has real opportunity for a better life,
an America where when it comes time for tax cuts, the middle class
are the first in line.”
At a press conference after the speech, he stumbled over the details
of his economic policy, often rehashing what he had previously said.
He was more adamant, however, in emphasizing his distance from the
current Administration. Despite voting for the Iraqi war resolution,
Kerry remained strongly in opposition to what he saw as a Bush Administration
gambit to politicize the issue before the midterm elections.
“All of the important issues were drowned out by Iraq,”
he said. “They made a conscious decision to bring that up.”
Kerry’s address in Ohio was not accidental; with 20 Electoral
College votes, it ranks seventh in the nation. The state has sent
eight men to the White House, and has historically been a fertile
ground for Democratic candidates. Bush captured Ohio by a narrow
three percentage points in the 2000 election.
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