Economy and budget Kerry supported enhancing the
Balanced Budget Act. In 1993, Kerry voted for the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Kerry supported eliminating tax incentives for companies that move operations overseas and making efforts to reduce
outsourcing. Kerry was against funding cuts in
Social Security benefits. He opposed privatizing Social Security accounts.
Immigration Kerry supported cutting the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services' application pending backlog and reducing the lag for the
naturalization process. Kerry endorsed benefits to legal immigrants. Kerry supported the
DREAM Act. Kerry supported the proposal of legalizing the status of illegal immigrants, pending a certain amount of working time in the US and passing a background check. Kerry proposed border enforcement reformation and an increase of border enforcement funding.
Education and science Kerry voted for the
No Child Left Behind Act and argues that it should be "fully funded" which would entail funding several programs up to authorized levels of funding. He proposed a new "Education Trust Fund" to require the federal government to fund programs up to their authorized levels. He also proposed a "College Opportunity Tax Credit" for "economically vulnerable" students. Kerry promised to increase funding for scientific research, to reduce restrictions on
stem cell research, and to facilitate cooperation with foreign scientists by improving immigration and visa practices. He said he would support efforts to reduce
global warming.
Law and justice As an assistant
district attorney, Kerry personally prosecuted armed robbers, rapists, and mob bosses. He is in favor of putting resources in the community, backing the Community Oriented Policing System Act (COPS), and creating laws that lead to criminals being arrested and convicted. Kerry has advocated expanding the COPS program to place 100,000 police officers in community policing assignments. Kerry supports the Police Corps program. In the Senate, Kerry has advocated laws that punish drug dealers and money launderers.
Death penalty Kerry has long stated his opposition to the
death penalty, but stated that he would support it in the case of convicted
terrorists. He had previously opposed the death penalty for terrorists on the grounds that it would make it difficult to extradite suspects to the United States to stand trial. (Many nations refuse
extradition requests, on humanitarian grounds, if the suspect faces execution.)
Illegal drugs Kerry's proposals to deal with
illegal drugs included focusing on keeping drugs out of the country as well as reducing demand for illegal drugs. Kerry supported aggressively targeting traffickers and dealers. Kerry supported funding drug prevention and treatment programs.
Guns Kerry is a gun owner and
hunter. Kerry believes that law-abiding Americans should continue to have the right to own guns, but only guns that fall within the "hunters and sportsmen" paradigm. As he has voted in favour of various gun control measures, the
NRA Political Victory Fund gave him an
F rating in 2004, their lowest rating. In 2002, the pro-gun control
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence indicated that Kerry voted their preferred position 100% of the time. As a senator, Kerry has supported: • The
Brady Bill and mandatory background checks • Legislation to close the
gun show loophole • A ban on various types of
semi-automatic firearms • Mandatory gun locks
Social issues Abortion Kerry affiliates himself with pro-choice women's organizations. Kerry is against the criminalization of abortion. In the Senate, Kerry consistently voted against bans on abortions conducted on military bases and military installations overseas, as well as against the ban on
partial-birth abortion. He has been given a 0% rating from the
National Right to Life Committee and a 100% rating from
NARAL. In an interview on July 4, 2004, Kerry told the
Dubuque, Iowa,
Telegraph Herald "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." "I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America." Archbishop
Raymond Burke said that he would
deny Kerry communion over his position on abortion. The issue led to comparisons between Kerry's presidential campaign and that of
John F. Kennedy in 1960. While Kennedy had to demonstrate his independence from the Roman Catholic Church due to public fear that a Catholic president would make decisions based on Vatican commands, it seemed that Kerry, in contrast, had to show obedience to Catholic authorities in order to win votes. According to Margaret Ross Sammons, Kerry's campaign was sufficiently damaged by the threat to withhold communion that it may have cost him the election. Sammons argues that President
George W. Bush was able to win 53% of the Catholic vote because he appealed to "traditional" Catholics.
Gay rights Kerry is in favor of the acknowledgement and protection of civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans. John Kerry is an original cosponsor of the
Hate Crimes Prevention bill and supports passage of the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He introduced a very early bill (1985) into the Senate to statutorily forbid sexual-orientation-based discrimination. Kerry cosponsored the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE) and also sponsored the
Vaccines for the New Millennium Act. Kerry supported same-sex
civil unions, but opposed
same-sex marriage. Kerry supported legislation to provide domestic partners of federal employees the benefits available to spouses of federal employees. Kerry voted against the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the Senate in 1996 and opposes the proposed
Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA). He and Senator Edwards were absent for the unsuccessful vote to invoke
cloture on the FMA, a procedural move that the FMA's proponents had conceded beforehand would be defeated. In an interview with National Public Radio in February 2004, Kerry endorsed equal rights for same-sex couples, but commented that "the word marriage kind of gets in the way of the whole debate," because of the religious origin of marriage as being limited to male-female unions. Kerry opposed the "
don't ask, don't tell" policy. Since 1995,
Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights advocacy group, has given Kerry a 100% rating for his voting record in Congress.
Affirmative action Kerry states that he supports affirmative action and diversity programs, a claim supported by his Senate voting record. He has, however, expressed reservations about affirmative action in the past, most notably in a 1992 speech in which he reportedly called the practice "inherently limited and divisive," explaining that it "has kept America thinking in
racial terms." Kerry has also received some criticism from
African Americans because his campaign inner circle was entirely white. Kerry also remarked on Bill Clinton's close relationship with African Americans: "President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second." Kerry's remark was not well received by some blacks.
National service Kerry supports supplementing national service in nearly all aspects of American life, including requiring
community service for high school students to graduate, a "Summer of Service" for teenagers (essentially community service during summer breaks from school, with a U.S. $500 grant for college), increasing the
Peace Corps to 25,000 members, requiring universities that receive Federal funding to offer a
ROTC, and providing more funding for ROTC scholarships.
Foreign policy Iraq Kerry voted in support of the Senate resolution authorizing the President to use force against
Saddam Hussein if he failed to surrender his
weapons of mass destruction and related tools for constructing and distributing them. Kerry, in October 2002, declared his belief that "
Iraq has some lethal and incapacitating agents and is capable of quickly producing weaponizing of a variety of such agents, including anthrax, for delivery on a range of vehicles, such as bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers and covert operatives which would bring them to the United States itself." The
National Intelligence Estimate, to which Kerry had access, held some skepticism of Iraq's capability. Kerry's vote to support the use of force in Iraq was given with strong stipulations that all other peaceful avenues be exhausted first, and that any action of force would be done in conjunction with a world coalition, and not just with the British. (Kerry's full statement before casting his resolution vote) After the President launched the
U.S. invasion against
Iraq, without meeting all of Kerry's stipulation, Kerry reiterated his position and declared the administration's Iraq policy reckless at best and baseless at worst. He has since been outspoken against the handling of the war and of the Bush administration's stewardship of occupied Iraq, attacking what he calls poor planning and poor diplomacy on Bush's part, but supports remaining in Iraq until the task of reconstruction and reconciliation is complete. He changed his position on WMDs by saying they were not enough to go to war with Iraq. (Kerry's post-attack view on Iraq) This harmed Kerry's campaign when he was perceived as a "flip-flopper," changing his position to better suit what is popular. This perception was strengthened after a March 16, 2004, debate at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia when Kerry made what would become one of the most famous lines of his campaign stating, "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it." The Bush campaign immediately seized on the comment, using the footage in television ads to illustrate its charge that Kerry flip-flops on issues, particularly the war in Iraq. "Kerry Discusses $87 Billion Comment," Kerry was criticized by
Howard Dean and others for his position on the war, which was criticized as inconsistent. Kerry explained his vote authorizing force by claiming that he believed the Senate resolution was intended to be a diplomatic "threat" to Saddam Hussein and not a
blank check for war. In the first of the
2004 United States presidential debates, Kerry argued that Saddam Hussein had posed a significant potential threat, but that President Bush was premature in going to war. Kerry stated that war should have been a last resort, after diplomatic pressure and efforts by
United Nations weapons inspectors had been allowed to run their course. Kerry and Bush sparred repeatedly over Kerry's expression of his policy. Kerry maintained that he has "one Iraq policy", while Bush claimed that Kerry has made major changes in his policy. The Bush campaign says that differences between one Kerry policy statement and another amount to "
flip-flops." The nonpartisan
FactCheck stated that "Kerry has never wavered from his support for giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, nor has he changed his position that he, as President, would not have gone to war without greater international support."
Multilateralism Kerry advocates involving
NATO, troops from other countries and the
United Nations in U.S.-led efforts to achieve the goals of a "stable" and "democratic" world. According to the
Harvard Crimson, Kerry said in 1970 that the United Nations should have approval over most of our foreign military operations. "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." He has since repudiated this 1970 position. Kerry says he has always believed the United States has the absolute right to defend itself. Throughout his Senate career, Kerry was also a staunch critic of many foreign policy initiatives of Republican Presidents. He opposed and voted against the
Gulf War in 1991, and opposed funding the
Contras in
Nicaragua and similar armed groups in Latin America. Kerry was preferred by most US allies, according to a GlobeScan-PIPA poll, conducted during July and August 2004.
Military Kerry sponsored the
Code of Conduct of Arms Transfers Act, which would prohibit U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to undemocratic nations,
human rights violators or armed aggressors. Kerry cosponsored an amendment to the
Department of Defense Authorization Bill that allows the military to transport families of soldiers wounded while on active duty. Kerry detailed proposals for homeland security efforts include enlisting the
National Guard and
AmeriCorps, creating a community defense service, ensuring first defenders and first responders are equipped and ready, improving information technology, reforming domestic intelligence, implementing public health initiatives and improving infrastructure security. Kerry and fellow Vietnam-era Navy veteran Senator
John McCain (R-
AZ) had worked together in the early 1990s on
U.S. Senate Select POW/
MIA Committee. McCain and Kerry later joined to urge President Clinton to lift the trade embargo against Vietnam, which led to normalized relations between the countries but engendered some angry reactions from those involved in the
Vietnam War POW/
MIA issue.
Environment Kerry advocates the removal of
toxins from communities, bolstering the
Superfund cleanup program, and reducing sprawl and traffic congestion. Proposals for "Green and Clean Communities" include a Toxics Task Force at the
EPA, fighting
air pollution,
water pollution and fighting other environmental hazards. Kerry has proposed a "Conservation Covenant." As part of the covenant, Kerry will extend the
Endangered Species Act for the benefits of wildlife and
habitat protection to
public and
private lands and reinvest public-land royalties back into land protection. In 2002, Kerry was one of the leaders of the Senate filibuster that defeated the Bush administration's proposal to open the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Kerry wants to participate in the development of an international
climate change strategy to address
global warming. In 1998, the
League of Conservation Voters gave Kerry an award for having one of the best environmental voting records in the Senate over the previous five years. In 2004, the
Sierra Club endorsed Kerry, the first time it had endorsed a presidential candidate before the party conventions.
Health care Kerry proposed a comprehensive health care plan that was more extensive than that proposed by President Bush. Several estimates were made of the cost of his proposals. While the estimates varied, they all indicated that the funding requirements would be substantial. ==Campaign history==