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Kerry: It's a huge campaign issue. We have lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, and even considering new employment, we still have a net 1.9 million jobs lost. But even more serious, we have wage recession. The jobs being created are not producing the salaries necessary to raise people's standards of living. You've had a 50% increase in health care costs, a 35% increase in college tuitions, a 41% increase in gasoline prices, and yet [yearly] wages have gone down an average $1,600 per worker. America's workers are going backward in their standard of living, and they know it.
RD: On to Iraq. Do you think more U.S. troops may be needed there in the short to medium term?
Kerry: That's up to the commanders in Iraq, and a President needs to do whatever the commanders say is necessary to keep our troops secure. But the first alternative should be for the President to show the statesmanship to bring other countries to the table. They have a stake in the outcome of this.
I mean, Arab countries have a huge stake in not having a failed Iraq as their neighbor. Europeans have a huge stake in not having a failed Iraq on their doorstep. But this Administration has pushed them away, and I think it's a great failure of American diplomacy. Notwithstanding the creation of a new government in Iraq, we have still not internationalized the decision making. It's still American-run.
The real test of leadership is whether the President reduces the cost to the American taxpayer and gets other troops on the ground to share the risk and relieve the burden from an overstretched American military.
RD: Regarding health care, you have a plan to extend insurance coverage to the vast majority of Americans. What other health care goals do you have?
Kerry: We have the most inefficient, ineffective way of caring for people. Sure, they get care when they go to the emergency room, but that's the last, most expensive care. We've got to start getting into preventative thinking, you know, holistic care. I got screened early for prostate cancer. I'm cured, so I'm not a long-term care problem.
We could cut the cost of diabetes by 50% if we did early screening. I want Americans to start teaching kids nutrition and to look at obesity problems. How do you take care of yourself? People want that knowledge, and that's where the President can lead.
Also, we need to get technology in the hospitals, create a universal language in the health care system to reduce administrative costs, which are up 30% today. No business in America has that kind of cost. You go to an ATM machine and take money out, it's a penny a transaction. Go to a hospital to get your records, it's $15 or $20.
RD: You've also made an issue of our energy policy.
Kerry: A goal of my Presidency will be to have 20% of America's electricity produced by alternative and renewable fuels by the year 2020. Right now, almost half the tax incentives in the Bush energy bill go to gas and oil. I also believe we have to move toward energy independence. And one way to do that is through tax credits to get people to rapidly adopt hybrid vehicles.
RD: And what are your views on the environment?
Kerry: The Bush Administration has no environmental agenda other than cosmetic photo opportunities. You can go to states around the country and see how we've gone backward on forest rules, backward on arsenic levels in water, backward on everything.
I think we can advance not in a doctrinaire way, but thoughtfully, bringing corporations to the table, finding the least costly, least intrusive, most effective ways of accomplishing common goals. CEOs of companies have grandchildren. They don't want them drinking poison. We have common interests in clean water, in clean air. Let's find the best way of getting there.
RD: Finally, can you speak about abortion, which is obviously a very divisive issue?
Kerry: I think abortions should be rare. I don't think pro-choice means pro-abortion at all, never have. Nor does the fact that you wind up voting in the Senate in a way that protects choice.
I'm not going into great length about it, but I'll just say to you: The [Catholic] Church also teaches that you should protect the environment, that war is not good, that we have a responsibility to help the poor. And the question is, are they all going to be addressed or is this a selective process?
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