Bush is 'like Tony Soprano'
2004-10-14 07:20
Tempe - President George W Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry fought over who is the most wasteful spender in their televised election debate on Wednesday.
Kerry likened a Bush lecture on running the economy to letting television show mafia boss Tony Soprano dictate law and order.
The Republican president hit back by saying Kerry was on the "far left" of American politics and an irresponsible tax-and-spend politician.
The economy was one of the key issues in the third and final debate between the two before the November 2 election.
Pay-as-you-go
The session was devoted to domestic issues and Kerry has sought to highlight the difficult employment situation in the United States and the huge budget deficit under the Bush administration.
Kerry has insisted he is fiscal conservative who supports the "pay-as-you-go" system of balanced spending and revenues.
Bush said "Pay-go means 'you pay' and 'he goes ahead and spends'" as he launched a strong attack on Kerry record on tax votes in the US Senate as well as his policy plan.
"Senator, no-one is playing with your votes. You voted to increase taxes 98 times. And they proposed reducing taxes and you voted against it 96 times.
"You know there's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank."
Bush has used huge tax cuts to relaunch the US economy, but Democrats say these have been focused on the richest Americans. Kerry has said he will cancel tax cuts for those who earn more than $200 000 a year.
"He has proposed $2.2trillion of new spending and yet the so-called tax on the rich, which is also a tax on many small business owners in America, raises $600bn by our account, 800bn by his account," said Bush.
"There is a tax gap."
Kerry said that "being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country."
He added: "This president has taken a $5.6trillion surplus and turned it into deficits as far as the eye can see."
Kerry highlighted rises in health care costs, college tuition fees and gasoline prices paid by drivers.
"But guess what, America, the wages of Americans have gone down."
Economic policy
The Democratic challenger also called for a "fair trade playing field" in international commerce to help US workers fight for their jobs.
He said the administration should have given faster help to Boeing Corporation in its battle with European rival Airbus Industrie over government subsidies and been more forceful with China over its exchange rate which many say is deliberately kept low.
"The fact is that the president had an opportunity to stand up and take on China for currency manipulation. There are companies that wanted to petition the administration. They were told: 'Don't even bother - we're not going to listen to it'."