Where They Stand

By Jyoti Thottam

IRAQ

*BUSH: The President argues that the U.S. can secure peace and stability in Iraq by training local forces to take over the policing of the country and ensuring that planned elections proceed in January. He hopes to have 125,000 Iraqi security forces trained by the end of this year and 200,000 by next summer, up from 98,500 now. Bush says he will defer to his military commanders on the question of future levels of U.S. forces, which now number about 137,000. Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to seize control of rebel-held towns in the Sunni triangle by flooding them with Iraqi security forces and reconstruction aid.

*KERRY: His plan for Iraq hinges on an expanded role for the rest of the world. He promises to hold a regional summit of key Arab and Muslim countries and press them to provide troops, money and training for Iraqi forces. Kerry intends to push NATO to make Iraqi security one of its missions. He pledges to accelerate the training of Iraqi security forces, get more U.S. allies involved in reconstruction efforts and hire more Iraqi contractors for infrastructure projects.

TERRORISM

*BUSH: He says he would create a national intelligence director, as recommended by the 9/11 commission. He plans to hire more border-patrol agents and expand biometric identification at 50 major border crossings. Rather than increase active-duty troops, Bush wants to shift forces from cold war--era outposts like Germany closer to terrorism hot spots. He wants to renew all the provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Some of the act's most controversial measures will expire in 2005.

*KERRY: He also wants to create an intelligence czar, but one with power over the various intel budgets. To fight terrorists, Kerry wants to double the number of Army special-operations personnel. In all, he would like to add 40,000 active-duty soldiers to the U.S. military to ease the burden on overstretched troops. He wants to increase funding for inspecting cargo at ports and on airplanes and to create a single national terrorist watch list. He wants NATO to play a larger role in Afghanistan, where he says al-Qaeda is "regrouping and strengthening," and promises to get tough with Saudi Arabia, a source of terrorist funding and extremist teachings. Kerry supports the Patriot Act but wants to strengthen some measures in it, like those targeting money laundering, and ease others that restrict civil liberties.

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

*BUSH: He wants to continue multinational talks with North Korea aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear-weapons program. He rejects Pyongyang's demands for talks with the U.S. alone. He has been content to let European nations take the lead in leaning on Iran to forgo nuclear arms and submit to meaningful inspections. He has proposed increased funding for research on bunker-busting nuclear weapons that could strike nuclear, chemical or biological weapons caches buried deep underground.

*KERRY: He wants to expand funding for the U.S. program that eliminates stockpiles of nuclear material in the former Soviet Union so that the cleanup can be completed within four years. At the current rate of funding, experts estimate, it would take until 2018. Kerry says he would open direct talks with North Korea to supplement the ongoing multilateral ones. He wants the U.S. to take a more active role in stopping the advance of Iran's nuclear program and push for further international sanctions against Iran if necessary.

TAXES

*BUSH: He maintains that his broad-ranging package of individual and corporate tax cuts has been crucial to stimulating the economy and pulling it out of the 2001 recession. Bush has already passed $1.77 trillion in tax cuts, many of them legislated as temporary measures. Now he wants to make the reforms permanent. They include the new 10% tax bracket, the reduction in the so-called marriage penalty, an increase in child tax credits to $1,000, tax credits for corporate research and development, and a measure that allows small businesses to expense capital equipment.

*KERRY: He wants to retain the tax cuts for most Americans but abolish those for families making more than $200,000 a year. With part of that money, Kerry says, he would fund tax credits to support his other policies. For families, Kerry offers a $5,000 credit for child-care expenses. By ending a policy that allows companies to defer taxes on foreign income, Kerry says he would generate enough extra revenue--about $12 billion--to lower corporate tax rates from 35% to 33.25%.

JOBS

*BUSH: In the face of 821,000 jobs lost since he took office in January 2001, Bush has argued that job growth will eventually emerge from tax cuts. The cuts, he says, stimulate the economy and will spur employers to hire more workers. To help some of the 8 million unemployed in the meantime, Bush promises in a second term to establish $3,000 re-employment accounts, granted like unemployment benefits, for job-search expenses like child care and transportation.

*KERRY: In an effort to reduce the outsourcing of U.S. jobs, he promises tax reform to make it less attractive for U.S. companies to expand operations overseas. Kerry proposes a tax incentive to encourage manufacturers, small businesses and other companies that are inclined to outsource jobs to hire new employees in the U.S. rather than abroad. He would give a credit on payroll taxes, varying according to company size and number of hires. He says he would expand an assistance program intended for manufacturing workers to service-sector employees whose jobs have moved abroad. Kerry wants to increase the minimum wage to $7 an hour by 2007.

EDUCATION

*BUSH: Both Bush and Kerry view education as a long-term solution to job losses. Expanding the idea underpinning his No Child Left Behind program, which ties federal education funding for public schools to testing standards, Bush proposes two additional tests for high school students.

*KERRY: With college tuition costs rising, Kerry proposes a $4,000 tax credit for those bills and a new voluntary national- service program that would pay four years of state-college tuition for young people who complete two years of service. He wants to increase funding for worker training and the No Child Left Behind program.

HEALTH CARE

*BUSH: The President proposes creating "health savings accounts." Funded by tax-free salary deductions, those accounts, similar to 401(k)s, would pay for out-of-pocket health expenses under a low-premium, high-deductible insurance plan. Bush argues that because workers would pay for routine care, they would use medical services more judiciously, thereby reducing overall costs. To encourage enrollment, Bush would allow businesses to deduct contributions to the plans from their taxes. He would offer tax credits for low-income workers who can't otherwise afford health care. Believing medical-malpractice premiums are driving up health-care costs, he wants to cap punitive damages in malpractice suits at $250,000.

*KERRY: Kerry proposes two policies to make health insurance cheaper for companies and therefore, presumably, more available to workers: a tax credit to offset the costs for small businesses and a program in which the government would take over 75% of the cost of catastrophic care. To lower prescription-drug prices, Kerry says, he would allow Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers and permit the reimportation of drugs from Canada. Kerry promises to make health insurance available to every American child by funding an expansion of state child health insurance. Cost estimates for Kerry's health plan range from $650 billion to more than $1 trillion.

SOCIAL SECURITY

*BUSH: With the program's future solvency in question, Bush wants to privatize part of it. He would allow young workers to divert some of their Social Security contributions into "personal savings accounts" that could be invested like a 401(k). Those accounts would give workers a chance to earn higher investment returns in exchange for scaled-back guaranteed benefits.

*KERRY: He vows that he would not increase Social Security taxes, raise the retirement age, privatize the system or cut benefits. He says he would consider putting certain limits on benefits for wealthier seniors. Kerry argues that by cutting the deficit and helping the economy expand, he could fund Social Security fully, even as the baby boomers swell the retiree population, though many experts are skeptical.

ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY

*BUSH: With crude-oil prices stuck near $50 per bbl., Bush wants to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources by increasing domestic production, notably by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He supports a $4,000 tax credit for buyers of fuel-efficient hybrid cars and other credits for producers of electricity that use renewable sources like wind. By increasing funding to develop "clean coal" plants, Bush hopes to create a $50 billion market for the new technology.

*KERRY: He wants to reinstate the so-called polluter-pays tax on makers of chemicals and oil products and use that money to expand the Superfund program for cleaning up contaminated sites. He promises to expand the Clean Air Act, which was scaled back by the Bush Administration. To reduce U.S. oil consumption, Kerry proposes incentives for research in renewable energy and tax credits for buyers and manufacturers of hybrid cars. --By Jyoti Thottam