What Bush Has Done : Providing bold and active leadership to end the recession and helping people find work – From 2000 to 2003, America’s economy experienced an unprecedented combination of shocks: the stock market bubble bursting; an economic recession; the terrorist attacks of September 11th and subsequent War on Terror including the war in Iraq; and the discovery of corporate accounting scandals, years in the making, that undermined confidence in corporate America. President Bush acted promptly and aggressively to address these shocks. Creating Jobs – The President acted decisively to help create jobs and get Americans back to work. Just one year after the President signed the Jobs & Growth bill, there is widespread evidence his policies have worked. Raising America’s standard of living – The President’s economic policies have allowed Americans to weather the stock market bubble, the recession, the terrorist attacks, and the corporate scandals, and have resulted in higher incomes and living standards for American workers. # Leading the Fight against HIV/AIDS. In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a five-year, $15 billion initiative to turn the tide in combating the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. # Providing Access to Medicine for HIV Positive Americans. Just as he has shown leadership globally, the President is concerned about U.S. citizens who are suffering with HIV/AIDS. # Increasing Access to Effective Drug Treatment. The President’s Access to Recovery (ATR) program will give individuals seeking drug treatment expanded access to effective providers through a new voucher program. # Mentoring Disadvantaged Youth and Children of Prisoners. Last year, President Bush proposed a three-year, $450 million mentoring initiative. # Helping Ex-Offenders Contribute to Society. In January 2004, President Bush proposed a four-year, $300 million initiative to reduce recidivism and help released inmates contribute to their communities. # Opening or Expanding Community Health Centers. Access to health care has been extended to 3 million additional Americans – part of the President’s five-year plan to fund 1,200 new or expanded sites to serve an additional 6.1 million people. # Created New Health Savings Accounts. The President signed legislation that makes HSAs available to millions of Americans. # Created a Prescription Drug Benefit under Medicare. In December 2003, President Bush signed legislation that will make prescription drug coverage available to 40 million seniors and people with disabilities through Medicare. # Opened or Expanded Community Health Centers. Access to health care has been extended to 3 million additional Americans -- part of the President's five-year plan to fund 1,200 new or expanded sites to serve an additional 6.1 million people. # Strengthened Medicaid and SCHIP. HHS helped states develop new approaches to expanding coverage and avoiding reductions in their Medicaid and SCHIP programs. # Provided a Health Insurance Tax Credit. The trade bill provides a tax credit to help workers who lose their jobs due to international trade obtain health insurance coverage. # Medical Liability Reform. The President proposes to address the skyrocketing medical malpractice premiums through national adoption of proven minimum standards to make the medical liability system more fair, predictable, and timely # High Standards and Accountability - Since President Bush signed NCLB into law, all states have developed a plan to ensure that every student becomes proficient at reading and math and that achievement gaps are closed between students of different socio-economic backgrounds. # Historic Levels of Funding - President Bush's overall Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget represents a 49% increase for elementary and secondary education since FY 2001. # Reading First and Early Reading First - President Bush proposed and signed into law the Reading First and Early Reading First initiatives as part of his unequivocal commitment to ensuring that every child can read by the third grade. # Options Available for Parents - Using tutoring money provided under NCLB, low-income parents of children in schools that have been identified as needing improvement can select from the over 1,600 supplemental service providers approved by the states. # Providing Parents with School Choice - President Bush worked with Congress to include a school choice program in the FY 2004 Omnibus Appropriations bill for approximately 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia to attend the school of their choice. # passage of the USA PATRIOT Act: The USA PATRIOT Act brought down the artificial wall separating law enforcement and intelligence officers and allowed them to talk to each other as they work to prevent future attacks. # Creation of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC): TTIC became operational on May 1, 2003 and has since begun merging, analyzing and disseminating all threat information collected domestically and abroad in a single location. # Creation of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC): TSC consolidates terrorist watchlists and provide 24/7 operational support for thousands of Federal screeners across the country and around the world. The TSC will ensure that America's government screeners are working from the same unified set of anti-terrorist information when a suspected terrorist is screened or stopped anywhere in the Federal system. # Launch of the Container Security Initiative: The Container Security Initiative establishes tough new procedures and created new partnerships with the world’s largest ports to target high-risk cargo before it leaves for our shores. 19 major ports, consisting of two-thirds of cargo containers shipped to the U.S., have agreed to participate in CSI. A National Security Strategy that Meets the Challenges of Our Time Defending our nation against its enemies is the first and fundamental commitment of the federal government. On September the 11th, 2001, America learned that oceans will no longer protect us from the threats of a new era. On that day, the President set in motion a relentless worldwide campaign against terrorists, in order to secure our homeland and to make the world a more peaceful place. In September 2002, the President defined and sent to Congress the National Security Strategy of the United States of America. In it he offers a bold vision for protecting our Nation that realizes today’s new realities and new opportunities. It calls on America to use our position of unparalleled strength and influence to create a balance of power that favors freedom. The strategy has three pillars: * We will defend the peace by opposing and preventing violence by terrorists and outlaw regimes. * We will preserve the peace by fostering an era of good relations among the world’s great powers. * And we will extend the peace by seeking to extend the benefits of freedom and prosperity across the globe. As the world’s most powerful nation, President Bush believes that the United States has a special responsibility to help make the world more secure. * Improving Our Nation’s Air Quality - President Bush’s Clear Skies legislation would dramatically improve air quality by reducing power plants’ emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and mercury by approximately 70 percent over the next 15 years, more than any other clean air initiative. * Improving The Quality of Our Waters and Wetlands, and Resolving Water Crises - On Earth Day 2004, the President announced an aggressive new national goal to create, improve, and protect at least three million wetland acres over the next five years in order to increase overall wetland acres and quality. * Cleaning and Redeveloping Hazardous Waste Sites - Fulfilling a commitment he made when he ran for President, President Bush signed historic bipartisan brownfields legislation in 2002, accelerating the cleanup of abandoned industrial sites, or brownfields, to better protect public health, create jobs, and revitalize communities. * Promoting Land Conservation and Stewardship - In December 2003, President Bush signed legislation implementing key provisions of his Healthy Forests Initiative. The President’s initiative is helping restore the health and vitality of forests and rangelands, and helping reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires. * A Realistic, Growth-Oriented Approach to Global Climate Change - President Bush has committed America to meeting the challenge of long-term global climate change by reducing the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions to economic output, or greenhouse gas intensity, by 18 percent by 2012 compared to 2002. John Kerry John has a bold, new vision for America. An America safe from foreign threats and greedy special interests. John has the experience and plans to lead America to better jobs, quality health care, energy that is clean, renewable, and independent, and greater opportunities for our children. John Kerry has always had the courage to stand by what he believes in. John earned three Purple Hearts fighting for America in Vietnam but returned home to fight against the Administration’s ill-conceived foreign policies. For the last 20 years, John has continued to fight against special interests to protect our environment, keep guns off the streets, make prescription drugs available and affordable for seniors, and stop corporations from robbing hardworking Americans by taking jobs overseas. All his life, John has led the fight to make America a safer and stronger nation. As a soldier, prosecutor, and Senator, John has never backed down from a tough fight. John’s life has been defined by having the courage to fight to protect the Alaskan wild from oil drilling, put one of New England’s toughest organized crime bosses behind bars, help expose Oliver North, BCCI and Iran/Contra, find the truth about Vietnam’s MIA’s, raise the minimum wage for hardworking Americans, and rebuild America’s crumbling schools.
