The US presidential campaign turned squarely to the economy on Friday, as Senator John Kerry courted this hard-hit state with a promise of new jobs, while President Bush promoted his tax cuts as an engine for growth.
After several weeks of advertisements by the Bush campaign portraying Kerry as a tax-and-spend liberal, the Massachusetts senator used his first major policy address of the general election battle to position himself as a moderate New Democrat on fiscal policy. He proposed an overhaul of corporate taxes that would provide a a 5 percent reduction in the corporate tax rate for most companies.
Bush, after days of focus in Washington on his administration's response to terrorism, spent the day defending his economic record after a period of recession and extolling home ownership in the fast-growing states of New Mexico and Arizona.
For Kerry, it was a critical moment of self-definition on the economy, which many political strategists see as the top issue in the unfolding campaign. He plans to outline a range of economic proposals in a spring offensive under the new banner, "Jobs First."
"Under this president, more and more of our people have begun to lose confidence in our economy," Kerry said in a speech at Wayne State University in Detroit, ticking off a series of dire statistics about unemployment and poverty over the past three years. "Instead of giving us an economy that creates jobs and opportunity, our present leadership has given us wedge issues designed to divide Americans. Instead of a real economic plan, they have given us the old politics of negative attacks."
But Bush used his visit to the Southwest to highlight the record levels of home ownership there and across the country, arguing that his tax cuts had spurred the economy by increasing demand.
"This economy is strong, and it's getting stronger," Bush told an audience of several hundred at the sun-splashed courtyard at the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Later, speaking to members of the carpenters' union in Phoenix, he said: "The most important issue for me is jobs."
The parallel campaign swings two time zones apart were part of a debate over the economy that will play out across the campaign year. Kerry plans two more major speeches on the economy in the coming weeks, each designed to back up his promise to create 10 million new jobs in his first term, if elected.
Kerry on Friday brought out members of the Clinton administration to pitch his plan, hoping people will link his campaign to the thriving 1990s economy. Roger Altman, Clinton's deputy Treasury secretary, held a conference call with reporters, while Gene Sperling, Clinton's top economic adviser, traveled with the campaign and did the rounds on television.
"It is completely achievable for the United States to return to a path of creating 10 million jobs in four years," Sperling told reporters flying with Kerry from Washington to Detroit, noting that the Clinton administration added 11 million jobs in its first term.
The corporate tax overhaul Kerry announced Friday would end provisions in the tax code that allow American companies to take tax deferments on profits earned overseas. That is expected to yield about US$11 billion annually.
To encourage companies to bring back the US$600 billion now invested abroad, Kerry would provide a one-year haven during which those profits would be taxed at 10 percent rather than the full rate. Sperling said he thought that would bring a one-time windfall of US$10 billion to US$20 billion.
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