PENNSYLVANIA Jackson begins tour promoting jobs, health care, voting

His tour also will include stops in Ohio and West Virginia.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson railed against the fiscal policies of the Bush administration and announced a four-day, three-state bus tour to promote health care and education with some of the nation's top labor leaders.
Jackson called people onto a stage Thursday in Pittsburgh's Market Square to register them to vote and also asked the several hundred people in attendance to come to a registration rally just before the bus tour is scheduled to begin Sunday.
Jackson also criticized Bush on the war in Iraq.
Faced few options
Many area soldiers in Iraq, Jackson said, joined the military only because they could not afford health care or an education. The economy has severely affected those in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the three states Jackson will visit between Sunday and Wednesday, he said.
"They suffered in the mountains and they sink in the sands of Iraq," Jackson said. "They end up going to war because they cannot afford to go to college. Why do we come to Appalachia? To put a focus on poverty, illiteracy and disease."
Jackson will be joined Sunday outside the headquarters of the United Steelworkers of America by Leo Gerard, union president.
Late last year, Gerard accused Bush of capitulating to the European Union when he ended steel tariffs, meant to prop up the troubled industry, after only 21 months.
Many steelworkers in the three states, which hold 46 of the 270 electoral votes at stake in 2004, are still angry.
"It got steel companies back on their feet, but he rolled over as soon as it got a little hot in the kitchen," said Howard Scott, a USWA spokesman.
In addition to Gerard, Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are scheduled to appear with Jackson during the tour.
Ohio, with an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, is the only state among the three that is above the national unemployment average of 5.6 percent. Pennsylvania and West Virginia are at 5.3 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Heather Layman, Republican National Committee spokeswoman, said Pennsylvania has added 10,000 new jobs under the Bush Administration and economic recovery would be stymied by "inevitable" tax increases if John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate, is elected president.
Others say the economy in the region and nationally is on the rebound, and that Jackson's claims are absurd.
"People join the services for a number of reasons, and I'm sure one of them is because it offers the best opportunity," said Bill Green, a Pittsburgh-based Republican political consultant. "But U.S. Steel and other companies are doing very well and demand for steel right now is incredible. The economy is on the comeback, including western Pennsylvania."