Rivals hit hard in final duel

TEMPE - President George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry battled over health care, jobs and taxes in their final debate yesterday, with Bush criticising Kerry's "far-left" Senate record and Kerry arguing the middle class had lost ground under the President.

In the last of three crucial debates in a deadlocked White House race, Bush and Kerry clashed repeatedly over their public records but turned down the volume from the angry tone of their first two debates.

Bush criticised Kerry for his "liberal" Senate record and warned he would raise taxes, boost spending and support more government intervention in health care.

"There's a mainstream of American politics and you sit right on the far left bank," Bush told Kerry, repeatedly referring to him as a Massachusetts senator and linking him to his liberal Senate colleague, Senator Edward Kennedy.

Kerry hammered Bush for turning his back on the middle class by building a record of job losses, rising budget deficits and ballooning health care costs.

"I'm going to stand up and fight for the American worker, and I'm going to do it in a way that is fiscally sound," Kerry said.

Polls showed the race a dead heat and both candidates were trying to take advantage of their last chance to reach a television audience of tens of millions before the November 2 election.

Kerry was aggressive in attacking Bush's record.

He said 45 million Americans did not have health insurance, including five million who lost it while Bush was in charge.

"This President has turned his back on the wellness of America."

The US health care system was "not working for the American family and it's gotten worse", he said.

Kerry has proposed a health care plan that independent experts say would cost US$900 billion ($1330 billion) over 10 years, although Bush says it will cost US$1.5 trillion.

Bush said Kerry's health care plan was an "empty promise" and a "bait and switch" programme he would never be able to pay for.

"A plan is not a litany of complaints and a plan is not a programme that you can't pay for," Bush said.

"I believe the role of government is to stand side by side with our citizens to help them realise their dreams, not tell citizens how to live their lives."

Bush repeatedly attacked Kerry's Senate record and accused him of supporting tax increases 98 times and voting to exceed the budget caps 277 times.

"My opponent talks about fiscal sanity. His record in the US Senate does not match his rhetoric," Bush said.

Kerry said that "anybody can play with these votes, everybody knows that" and said he had voted for tax cuts more than 600 times.

He said Bush, who has seen a large budget surplus turn into a budget deficit under his Administration, had no standing to question his fiscal judgment.

"Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order," Kerry said, referring to the murderous Mafia boss in the US television programme, The Sopranos.


The shift to domestic issues was supposed to be an advantage for Kerry, who leads Bush in most polls on his ability to lead the country on jobs, the economy, health care and the environment.

Those issues, the bread-and-butter domestic agenda for Democrats for decades, have been drowned out in the campaign this year by the clamorous debate over Iraq.

Iraq arose again during the debate, with Kerry blaming Bush for rushing into the Iraq war and pushing away allies.

"As a result America is now bearing this extraordinary burden where we are not as safe as we ought to be," Kerry said. "We can do a better job of homeland security."

Bush pointed with pride to the Afghan elections last weekend as evidence his policies are working.

He accused Kerry, who says he will raise taxes on those making more than US$200,000 but promises to provide targeted tax breaks to lower-income earners, of planning a far larger tax increase.

"There is a tax gap, and guess who usually ends up filling the tax gap? The middle class," Bush said.

The candidates, who both oppose gay marriage, disagreed on whether the issue should be left up to states and offered differing answers on whether a person could choose to be gay.

- REUTERS


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