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MESSAGE
FROM THE CHAIR:
If George Bush wants to keeps talking about “preposterous” claims, what about the apparent Republican claim that the United States is better off with 4 million MORE people without health insurance since George Bush took office – for a total of 45 million uninsured – and with health insurance premiums that are $2,700 more per family per year? Senator Kerry’s program will cover every child in the United States with health care, extend affordable health care to 95% of Americans through programs to lower insurance costs and encourage employers to provide coverage, and provide a meaningful prescription drug benefit for seniors. Senator Kerry has laid out exactly how he would fund that program. Democrats have a plan; Republicans do not. I think that it is also “preposterous” to claim, as the Republicans essentially do, that the United States is better off with 1.5 million fewer jobs since Bush was sworn in, with 1.5 million more people living in poverty, with new jobs that earn $9,000 per year less than the jobs lost during Bush’s first term and with middle income families earning $1,500 less per year. Senator Kerry has a comprehensive plan to create 10 million new jobs in the first four years of his presidency, protect workers’ rights to overtime pay (which the Bush administration opposes), and to stop tax breaks for companies that send U.S. jobs overseas. Democrats have a plan; Republicans do not. I think that it is also “preposterous” to claim the United States education system is better off with the No Child Left Behind Act shortchanged by more than $33 billion dollars, with college loan and grant programs being cut, with after-school programs being eliminated, and with Head Start not fully funded. Senator Kerry will change Bush Administration policy in every one of those areas. Democrats have a plan; Republicans do not. It is also “preposterous” to claim the United States is better off with a $ 5.2 trillion deficit than it was with the $ 5.6 trillion surplus Bush inherited from President Clinton. Thanks to Bush, every baby born in this country inherits a $25,000 debt – the Bush birth tax. Senator Kerry promises to cut the deficit significantly in his first four years and has outlined a specific proposal to do that. No Republican administration since Richard Nixon has achieved a balanced budget. Democrats have a plan; Republicans do not. And it is “preposterous” to claim the United States is better off in the war against terrorism. Bush decisions to cut funds for police and firefighters, eliminate funding for the 100,000 police President Clinton’s COPS program put on the streets, refusal to fund adequate inspections at our ports, and to make it easier for terrorists to acquire assault weapons have made us less safe. His squandering of the international goodwill and respect this nation enjoyed after 9/11 by his go-it-alone arrogance and his creation of a breeding ground for terrorists by the inept handling of the Iraqi reconstruction effort have put this country more at risk. John Kerry would provide funds to hire 100,000 firefighters, restore funding for the COPS program and dramatically increase cargo container inspections. John Kerry will be a credible leader other nations will respect and work with to reduce terrorism. Democrats have a plan; Republicans do not. The most “preposterous” claim of all is the Bush campaign’s insistence that the administration has earned another four years in office. The war in Iraq is a shambles. United States esteem in the world has plummeted. The economy is stagnant. Jobs have been lost. Health care coverage has deteriorated and costs more. The national debt has skyrocketed. Education has been seriously under funded. We are no longer the envy of the world; we are the recipients of its enmity. How anyone could look at that record and conclude that the folks who brought it to us in just four years should be returned to office for another four is, to me, well, preposterous! Gerry Birnberg |
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George
Bush keeps insisting, “It is preposterous to claim that the world
would be better off with Sadaam Hussain still in power.” Such a
claim would be preposterous, and that’s why nobody in the Kerry/Edwards
campaign has made it. Nobody disagrees that the world is better off without
Sadaam Hussain. That doesn’t justify misleading the nation about
the reasons for going to war or excuse the colossal mismanagement of
the aftermath.
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