Kerry: We are here to make America stronger
Part 4 - Economy
 | |
| VIDEO |
 Retired Gen. Wesley Clark speaks on behalf of veteran Kerry.
 CNN's Bill Schneider on Kerry's challenge: defining his image.
 Watch an excerpt of the biographical video to be shown in tonight's session.
|
TRANSCRIPT |
Full transcript of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's accepatance speech...
|
|
So here is our economic plan to build a stronger America:
First, new incentives to revitalize manufacturing.
Second, investment in technology and innovation that will create the good-paying jobs of the future.
Third, close the tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping our jobs overseas. Instead, we will reward companies that create and keep good paying jobs where they belong -- in the good old U.S.A.
We value an America that exports products, not jobs -- and we believe American workers should never have to subsidize the loss of their own job.
Next, we will trade and compete in the world. But our plan calls for a fair playing field -- because if you give the American worker a fair playing field, there's nobody in the world the American worker can't compete against.
And we're going to return to fiscal responsibility because it is the foundation of our economic strength. Our plan will cut the deficit in half in four years by ending tax giveaways that are nothing more than corporate welfare -- and will make government live by the rule that every family has to follow: Pay as you go.
And let me tell you what we won't do: We won't raise taxes on the middle class. You've heard a lot of false charges about this in recent months. So let me say straight out what I will do as president: I will cut middle-class taxes. I will reduce the tax burden on small business. And I will roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals who make over $200,000 a year, so we can invest in job creation, health care and education.
Our education plan for a stronger America sets high standards and demands accountability from parents, teachers and schools. It provides for smaller class sizes and treats teachers like the professionals they are. And it gives a tax credit to families for each and every year of college.
When I was a prosecutor, I met young kids who were in trouble, abandoned by adults. And as president, I am determined that we stop being a nation content to spend $50,000 a year to keep a young person in prison for the rest of their life -- when we could invest $10,000 to give them Head Start, Early Start, Smart Start, the best possible start in life.
Part 5 - Health care
