John Kerry has a wealth of qualifications and ideas which make him an ideal candidate for president in any year. I must acknowledge, however, that we need him more in this year than we might in another because of the abominable record of President Bush, a record marred by ignorance, ineptitude and irresponsibility.
In four years, we've gone from $2 trillion in surpluses to $6 trillion in deficits with no end in sight. Despite erroneous claims by the current administration to the contrary, the budget crisis is the result of the Bush tax cuts for the super-wealthy. Bushies argue that those tax cuts were needed to stimulate the economy, but that's incorrect for two reasons. First, any decent economist will tell you that there are several policies which will greatly aid an economic recovery, but exorbitant tax cuts for people who are already rich and employed isn't one of them. Second, the tax cuts haven't led to significant growth. This "economic recovery" hasn't produced enough jobs to keep up with the population, let alone make up for all the jobs lost during the recession. Payrolls continue to fall in states like Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Florida. If the unemployment rate included everyone who'd stopped looking for a job, it would be 7.4 percent today.
Bush also has a terrible record on civil rights. He has fought tirelessly to erode a woman's right to choose, ending funding for family planning organizations overseas which even mention abortion, preventing women from receiving late-term abortions even when their health is at stake. He's also appointed judges who've required young women to get their parents' consent to obtain abortions even if the women became pregnant after being raped by their fathers. Bush has fought against the rights of people of color by working against affirmative action and bilingual education programs. He is the first president since the NAACP's inception who hasn't bothered to meet with them. President Bush has consistently denied rights to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, including hospital visitation rights, adoption rights and partnership benefits. He even tried to use the Constitution to promote his bigotry.
The list goes on, and includes areas like Iraq, where President Bush jumped to war before he had the facts and then claimed he "wasn't happy" when he learned there were no weapons of mass destruction-as if it would be worse for him to be mistaken than for an enemy of America to have means to kill Americans. We all know that President Bush opposed the Department of Homeland Security before he supported it, opposed the 9/11 Commission before he supported it, and he still refuses to institute measures recommended by that commission to keep us safe. He's been wrong on the environment, education, health care and social security. In fact, the President doesn't have one issue where we can all step back and agree that he has made our country better.
Luckily for us, we have a better choice in John Kerry. Senator Kerry has served his country for 40 years, as a soldier, a prosecutor, a lieutenant governor and a senator. He has a plan to improve our economy by encouraging American companies to keep jobs here at home rather than giving them a tax break for outsourcing-shipping those jobs overseas. He's going to roll back the Bush tax cuts on the super-rich to make health care available to 27 million Americans-including every American child-and bring down premiums by up to $1,000 on every middle class family. He's going to put the money for education into a national trust fund so it can grow without being subject to congressional cuts and make college tuition tax-deductible for every family in America. He intends to work for civil rights for women, including women's reproductive rights and equal pay for equal work. He will fight for rights for people of color, promoting affirmative action and rekindling an active relationship with the NAACP. He's going to fight for gay rights by lobbying for partnership benefits, visitation rights and adoption rights for LGBT couples.
He'll also run a more sensible foreign policy and implement all of the suggestions from the 9/11 Commission. Twelve four-star generals from both parties went onstage at the Democratic National Convention to say they agree with Kerry's strategies and that he would make a better commander-in-chief than President Bush. As president, John Kerry will work to protect the health of our planet, the lives of Americans and the safety of our country. In fact, on almost every issue, John Kerry has a plan to make our country better.
In six days, our nation will be faced with a choice: Will we choose four years like the last four, ruled by intimidation, pessimism and a downward trend in our standard of living? Or will we choose a better path, filled with cooperation, optimism and a higher quality of life for all Americans? Will we choose fear or will we choose hope? For the sake of all Americans, we must choose the latter. For the sake of all Americans, we must elect John Kerry.