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MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTIntroductionOver the course of the campaign, Senator Kerry has proposed adding more than $2 trillion in new spending to the Federal budget, including his big government take over of health care.  Yet he still claims he will reduce the budget deficit in half during his first term.  Contrary to his claim, third party analysis indicates Senator Kerry underestimates the costs of his proposals and inflates the value of his offsets.  Independent analysts conclude Senator Kerry's numbers just don't add up.  In order to maintain his pledge to cut the deficit in half he will either have to...

MEMORANDUM FROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTWhen it comes to safeguarding access to health care, Americans will face a clear choice at the polls in November.  Both candidates agree that America is losing its doctors and experiencing a crisis in access to health care.  Only President Bush, however, has provided a proven plan to reduce health care costs and retain our nation’s doctors.  No candidate can be pro-patient, pro-doctor, and pro-trial lawyer at the same time.  John Kerry made his choice when he selected John Edwards as his running mate.JOHN KERRY HAS NO PLAN TO REDUCE MEDICAL LIABILITY COSTS – HIS...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENT1. KERRY:  "DESTROY TERRORIST NETWORKS"   The United States has waged two wars since September 11, taking away terrorists' foreign operating bases and liberating fifty million people from two of the world's most brutal and aggressive regimes. Of the senior al Qaeda and associated leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the United States has been tracking, more than two-thirds have been detained, captured, or killed.   2. KERRY:  "PREVENT NUCLEAR TERRORISM" President Bush spearheaded the establishment of the G-8 Global Partnership, which over 10 years will provide $20 billion in nonproliferation and weapons reduction assistance to the former Soviet...

Memorandum From: BC '04 Policy DepartmentThis memorandum reviews and responds point-by-point to John Kerry's column about the economy that appeared in the September 15, 2004 edition of the Wall Street Journal.  It provides a quote from the Kerry op-ed and then factual responses.OverviewJohn Kerry continues to dismiss the fact the President Bush inherited a tired and crippled economy that then experienced the most extraordinary confluence of shocks that has occurred in any business cycle in modern U.S. economic history.  In December of 2003, John Kerry said, " ...we haven't been creating jobs to some measure because of the overhang of...

MEMORANDUM FROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENT Senator Kerry has repeatedly tried to talk down a growing economy by focusing only on the most pessimistic of statistics and ignoring the remarkable recovery of an economy that experienced the shocks of the stock bubble burst, recession, terrorist attacks, and corporate scandals. The irony is that the same statistics Kerry campaigned on in 1996 are the same he rails against in 2004. As BusinessWeek recently reported, "On many of the key variables that voters care about, the economy looks uncannily like it did in the summer of 1996, a year when the incumbent was...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENT John Kerry’s economic adviser, Robert Rubin, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” show with George Stephanopoulos yesterday.  Contrary to Kerry’s claims, Rubin confirmed that Kerry’s proposed tax increase on U.S. companies competing abroad would not stop outsourcing.  Rubin said outsourcing is good for our economy and part of trade liberalization.  He outlined several steps for an international trade agenda – all of which President Bush is already doing.  Rubin never mentioned Kerry’s agenda of economic isolationism. Rubin said outsourcing is not a problem, that instead it’s beneficial and good for our economy: RUBIN: “It's part of trade liberalization, and trade...

MEMORANDUM FROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTINTRODUCTIONPresident Bush has made combating crime a top priority of his administration. During his time in office, President Bush has launched unprecedented efforts to crack down on gun crime, rein in corporate fraud, and reduce criminal recidivism. His innovative law enforcement reforms earned President Bush the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police labor organization. Thanks to President Bush's efforts, the violent crime rate is at a 30-year low and Americans everywhere are living safer, less fearful lives.  SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS1. REDUCING CRIME - THE LOWEST CRIME RATE IN 30 YEARSPresident Bush's policies...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTPresident George W. Bush has a bold agenda to adapt the government to our changing economy.  His broad agenda includes: overhauling our tax code with a simple, fair and pro-growth system, putting patients and doctors in charge of health care instead of government bureaucrats, strengthening and enhancing Social Security, and promoting lifelong learning to give people new skills for better jobs.  Each proposal is based on a fundamental principle that government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives.  The President's ideas build on America's inherent strengths - such as technology and our...

Today's Remarks By John Kerry It is interesting to note that John Kerry's delivered remarks today differed in an important way from his prepared remarks. As Delivered:"Our plan will cut the deficit in half by four years – the same thing that we set out to do in 1993, and I was there and I voted for it, I know how we did it. And we're going to end the tax giveaways that are nothing more than corporate welfare." As Prepared:"Our plan will cut the deficit in half in four years by ending tax giveaways that are nothing more than...

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR): "Measure 30 Is The Kind Of Thing That John Kerry Would Have Been Four-Square For."During John Kerry’s visit to Oregon today he’s likely to talk down recent economic gains while promoting his own economic plan which includes raising taxes. Oregonians understand that tax increases are not the way to create jobs and spur the economy. That's why they rejected Ballot Measure 30 (which would have been the largest tax increase in state history) by a 17-point margin. As Sen. Gordon Smith noted in yesterday's Bush-Cheney '04 conference call, "Oregonians are people who on tax issues are...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENT This memorandum reviews two key issues for Bob Rubin's discussion on John Kerry's fiscal policies.  First, using Rubin's own words and Kerry's own numbers, the memorandum reviews a few examples of what's missing from Rubin's discussion of Kerry's agenda.  Second, using analysis from members of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, the memorandum reviews the real causes for the economic growth and budget surplus in the late 1990s.  What Bob Rubin Won't Tell You About A Kerry PresidencyRubin advises Kerry not to reveal any more tax increases until elected -Rich Miller of Business Week magazine: "Kerry...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTJohn Kerry says coal should play an important role in America's energy future.  He wants to "forge new ways to draw cleaner power from coal."  But John Kerry's record tells a different story—his votes and policies are aggressively anti-coal.  On every issue of importance to coal and coal miners, John Kerry has sided with environmental extremists, who, like Kerry, view coal as a "dirty energy source" that must be eradicated.VOTED LAST YEAR FOR KYOTO-LIKE BILLJohn Kerry voted for the Climate Stewardship Act (S. 139), a bill very similar to the Kyoto Protocol, which would destroy the coal...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTIntroductionJohn Kerry's record on energy is one of advocating policies that would raise energy prices across the board for working families and businesses, weaken the economy, lower disposable incomes, and cause massive job losses in key industries, as well as making America more dependent on foreign sources of energy.  His current efforts to fund renewable energy and conservation follow in large part exactly what President Bush is already doing, and echoes the President's energy plan that Kerry worked to block. ENERGY BILLThe comprehensive, bipartisan energy bill died in the Senate after receiving 58 votes, 2 short of...

To:         Interested PartiesFR:         BC '04 Strategy & PoliticalRe:         Update on States that President Bush is             Visiting Today and Tomorrow Iowa: As Close as 2000, but This Time Grassley Shares the Top of the Ticket The race in Iowa is locked in a dead heat.  The latest American Research Group poll (July 26-28) shows the President and Kerry tied at 47%.  John Kerry spent most of the Democratic primary season introducing himself to Iowa voters, and the race is still tied there today.    History suggests that the President will finish strong in Iowa.  The same American Research Group poll showed Gore leading...

MEMORANDUM FROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTJohn Kerry is now the official nominee of the Democratic Party.  He has made numerous policy proposals, but has yet to explain how he will pay for his promises.  Kerry's empty rhetoric on fiscal responsibility still doesn't answer the fundamental question of how he intends to pay for his campaign proposals.  His tax hikes don't even begin to cover the drastic increases in spending he has proposed, and he owes it to the American people to explain himself.The following balance sheet takes a look at Kerry's current budget promises, using independent third party sources, media sources...

The President’s Decision is Based on Ethical PrincipleIn August 2001, President George W. Bush made a decision about the complex and difficult issue of the Federal government’s role in embryonic stem cell research. For the first time ever, he allowed Federal research funds to be used in embryonic stem cell research. The President’s decision was based on a determination that we should not cross a fundamental moral line by using Federal funds to encourage or support the destruction of a human embryo. Bipartisan Support for ethical treatment of human embryos: The principle that human embryos merit respect as a form...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTIntroductionJohn Kerry is traveling the nation on his misery tour, inundating voters with his pessimism about America's economy.  What voters may not realize, however, is that the growing economy that Kerry continues to talk down is remarkably similar to the economy Bill Clinton touted during his 1996 reelection campaign and that Kerry speaks of in glowing terms.  Unemployment was 5.6 percent in May 1996, the exact same level as it is now.  The average monthly payroll growth from January to May 1996 was 233,000 jobs, and from January to May 2004 the economy created an average...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENT IntroductionThe U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders.  Under President Bush's leadership, we have created 1.4 million jobs since August and the economy is growing at its fastest rate in 20 years.  Despite this positive news, John Kerry continues his misery tour and furthers his efforts to talk down the growing economy.  Because the accepted Misery Index measurement is at a historic low, Kerry has created his own index to find misery in America's economy, and justify his absurd comparison of our growing economy to the Great Depression.Faster Economic Growth The economy has now grown for...

PowerPoint SlidesMemo & Slides (PDF) President George W. Bush has provided steady leadership in the face of remarkable change. The President’s positive and ambitious agenda has made our nation safer, stronger and better. The past three and a half years have tested our nation. The American people have responded with strength, optimism and resolve to grow the economy, strengthen our communities, and protect our nation from the threat of global terror. America’s economy is strong and growing stronger. We have overcome the triple shock of terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, and recession. We have overcome the challenges of being a...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTRE: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION RECORD ON NONPROLIFERATION INTRODUCTION Preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) around the world continues to be an urgent priority of President George W. Bush and his Administration. There is no greater danger to our people than the nexus of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. The risks posed by this dangerous nexus cannot be contained or deterred by traditional means. From the beginning of his Administration, the President's national security strategy has committed the US to work with its allies to: Ensure that international agreements against the proliferation of...