PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Kerry lists proposals for recovery

The presidential candidate says Ohio can turn around its economic struggles.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, says he would do everything he could to revive the struggling manufacturing industry, including steel, if elected next month.
But imposing tariffs on foreign steel is not at the top of his list.
In an exclusive interview Sunday with The Vindicator and the Dayton Daily News, Kerry said he would give manufacturing tax credits, work to modernize plants, enforce current trade and anti-steel dumping laws, and lower health-care costs to turn around the ailing steel industry.
President Bush imposed tariffs in March 2002 to help U.S. steel producers. Steel companies said the tariffs helped, but Bush lifted them after 18 months, halfway through the three-year program, because they were declared illegal by the World Trade Organization.
"Tariffs are a very blunt instrument, but I supported them," Kerry said during the discussion with the two reporters after a "town-hall-style" meeting Sunday at the Austintown Fitch High School gymnasium.
Kerry said he supported the tariffs "because the industry had been unfairly disadvantaged for a long period of time. But I think there's a lot we can do. The important thing is to work closely with the industry in order to try to help it."
Kerry wants to offer steel companies economic incentives for new investments, and said his plan to reduce health-care costs would help the industry.
Dropped by Bush
Kerry, accused by Republicans of flip-flopping on issues, fired a shot at Bush while talking to more than 800 people in the high school gym.
"Bush said that we'll give you three years [on tariffs], and then pulled the rug out from under the steel industry halfway in," he said. "That's a flip-flop-flip."
In response, Kevin Madden, a Bush-Cheney spokesman, said: "John Kerry's position on steel tariffs is he doesn't have one. He was for them, and then against them. John Kerry can't take a position on issues of importance. As President Bush said during the debate, the only thing consistent about John Kerry is his inconsistency."
Kerry told the two reporters that Ohio's struggling economy, quite reliant on the manufacturing industry, can recover.
The state's unemployment rate for August was 6.3 percent -- with 237,400 jobs lost in Ohio since Bush took office in January 2001 -- while the national rate was 5.4 percent. The state's unemployment rate was 3.9 percent when Bush began serving as president.
Taking new directions
Kerry said Massachusetts, his home state, lost thousands of jobs when its textile, shoe and leather industries bottomed out.
"We came back with technology, lighter manufacturing, the defense industry, and health and medical," he said.
Ohio's future could include the production of advanced materials, robotics, artificial intelligence and advanced communications, Kerry said. That would require job training and adult education programs, he said.
"I'm very confident about the future," Kerry said. "That's the difference between Bush and me. He doesn't see that future."
Kerry said he can't promise to bring back the steel industry.
"But there's plenty of stuff we can do in addition to holding on to a lot of what we've got with creative management and negotiations, and proper tax credits," he said.
Kerry trails in most polls taken of residents of Ohio, considered a key battleground state in the presidential election. But Kerry said he will become the first Democrat from a northern state to win Ohio's 20 electoral votes since 1940 because he offers a plan that is superior to the one offered by Bush.
"Ohio is a place for common sense," he said. "I have a plan to protect Americans that's better than George Bush's. I have a plan for success in Iraq. He doesn't have a plan. I have a plan to put people back to work that's fiscally responsive. I think I can do a better job."
Won't withdraw from Ohio
Kerry said he had no intention to pull out of Ohio and will continue to campaign here.
In 2000, Al Gore, the Democratic presidential candidate, held an Oct. 4 rally in Warren that attracted 50,000 people, believed to be the best-attended event held by the former vice president during that campaign.
But that was Gore's last visit to Ohio; he abandoned the state after advisers told him it was a lost cause and to focus on Florida, which he also lost. As it turned out, Gore lost Ohio to Bush by only 3.6 percent.
Madden said Ohioans are tired of hearing Kerry talking down the state's economy.
"John Kerry's absurd tax-and-spend approach to the economy shows just how out of touch he is when it comes to the important economic issues facing Ohio," Madden said.
Kerry said that, if elected, he would stop the military base closing process. The Bush administration is looking to close about one-quarter of all military bases in the United States.
Mahoning Valley residents are concerned about the future of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station. The Vienna base employs more than 2,400 people.
The president wants to announce the base closures next year; Kerry wants it postponed.
"The situation in North Korea and the situation in Iran in addition to our current level of force deployment [in Iraq] makes this a very unwise moment to" close bases, he said.
skolnick@vindy.com