Kerry Takes Job Creation Message to Laid-Off North Carolina Workers
August 20, 2004
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Aug. 20, 2004 — Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry came to the heart of a conservative state hit hard by job losses over the past four years to tout his plan for curbing the export of jobs by cutting corporate taxes and enforcing trade agreements.
Kerry is meeting Friday with laid-off workers and families in Charlotte, before going to southwest Florida to survey the damage inflicted a week ago by Hurricane Charley.
"Right now, we've got a choice," Kerry said in a statement. "We can keep on subsidizing companies who send jobs overseas, or we can reward companies who keep them here in America, where they belong."
Since President Bush took office in 2001, with the help of electoral support from North Carolina, the state has lost 160,000 jobs, with manufacturing employment down more than 20 percent.
Kerry says Bush has focused his jobs policy solely on tax cuts for the wealthy, while standing idly by as 2.7 million manufacturing jobs disappeared and the trade deficit exploded.
The Bush campaign defended the tax cuts and said Kerry's proposals, which include rolling back the tax cuts for the top 2 percent of wage earners, would inflict more damage on an economy that has begun to rebound in recent months.
"That tax increase will be paid by small business owners who are creating jobs in America," said Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt. "John Kerry's promise of more taxes, more regulation and his opposition to lawsuit reform are going to slow down the economic recovery that has created 1.5 million jobs this year."
Kerry's job creation plan includes ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and giving companies tax credits for all new jobs created in 2005 and 2006. With the money saved from the tax breaks and other measures, Kerry said he would reduce the corporate tax rate by 5 percent, making it easier for companies to keep jobs at home.
He also pledged to enact a six-point plan to strengthen trade enforcement, including a 120-day a review of all agreements and an investigation into human rights abuses in China.
Kerry's choice of venue for Friday's speech reflects Democratic optimism that they have a chance of putting North Carolina in their column after six straight presidential losses. The Democratic candidate has visited the state twice since he chose John Edwards, the state's senior senator, as his running mate in July. Polls indicate that the race is much tighter than four years ago, when Democrat Al Gore conceded the state to Bush before the race began.
Kerry was returning the focus to his domestic agenda Friday after a day dominated by the ongoing attacks on his Vietnam war record by a right-leaning group of Vietnam veterans funded by a close Bush ally. On Thursday, Kerry for the first time rebutted their claims that he exaggerated his war record to win medals.
After his speech Friday at Central Piedmont Community College, where Bush addressed the same topics in April, Kerry was flying to Fort Myers, Fla., to tour the hurricane zone with the state's junior senator, Democrat Bill Nelson.
While Bush visited the important battleground state two days after Charley struck, Kerry stayed away, saying he feared his presence could impede the recovery effort.
Florida decided the 2000 election by a margin of 537 votes and the state is considered up for grabs again this year. Kerry held a slight lead in a recent poll.
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