WOODRUFF: Well, let's hear from Senator Dean – Senator Kerry and Governor Dean on this very quickly.
KERRY: Well, I was just going to say, I guess you could say that not just their heart, but their wallet's in the right place, too.
(LAUGHTER)
That's bad.
Can I say that when I was serving in Vietnam on a small boat, the one thing I learned was nobody asked you where you came from. Nobody worried about your background. You fought together, you lived together and you bled together.
And I came back here to a country where I saw a whole bunch of people who'd served in Vietnam discriminated against, a lot of them from Arizona, a lot of them from New Mexico, Southern California, because Latinos and African-Americans I saw were drafted and on the front lines in far greater numbers than my friends from Yale or other people.
What I learned there is an indelible lesson: that what matters in life is what you fight for, the principles and values that you carry into the struggle.
And I will tell you that throughout my life, I believe I have stood up for democratic values, I have fought hard to hold government accountable, and I think I stand here with a broader base of experience, both in domestic affairs and in foreign affairs, than any other person.
WOODRUFF: Senator Kerry?
KERRY: Well, I disagree with General Clark that this is an attack when Joe Lieberman raises an issue.
People are trying to decide who can lead the United States of America. And the positions we take are critical to their capacity to make that decision.
The fact is that last year General Clark did say he would vote for the resolution that was in the Congress. In addition to that, at the time in May when he said that the right people were in charge, referring to Bush and to Cheney and Rumsfeld, at that time it was just a few days before Jim Jeffords switched and became an independent because of what they were doing to this country.
And at that moment, the general was prepared to say they are the right people. At that moment, those of us who were fighting for democratic principles, and have been for 35 years or more, were fighting against what they were doing to this country, and we had no lack of clarity about what compassionate conservative meant to this nation.
KERRY: It depends what vision you're offering to the country.
I agree with Jeff's premise. I think there has been a problem in the last election certainly. And part of it was not of the making of the party. It was the cleverness of the Republican administration and Karl Rove in exploiting national security.
They brought the Iraq issue in September for a purpose. Andrew Card said you don't introduce a new product in August. And they introduced their product, and they wiped other choices off the stage.
But that's one of the reasons why it's so important to have a nominee of our party who will have the ability to stand toe to toe with them.
They used to think their strong suit was national security. They can't find Osama bin Laden. They can't find Saddam Hussein. They can't even find the leaker in the White House.
WOODRUFF: Is there anyone among you…
(APPLAUSE)
KERRY: I believe that if we – Judy, in answer to your question, and Jeff also: We have to offer Americans real choices. We have to connect to every American about their health care. We are. We have to connect with children and their parents about how we're going to really fix our schools.
But as long as this administration leaves a preemptive doctrine on the table, as long as our administration is proceeding down the road to develop nuclear bunker-busting weapons, and as long as we remain a country that will conduct a preemptive war, we're inviting people to do the very thing that we don't want them to do.
We need a president now to prevent us from the very choice that you just said could occur, and that will only happen if we go to the United Nations now and get rid of the sense of American occupation in Iraq. Take the target off American troops.
WOODRUFF: Senator Kerry? Senator Kerry?
KERRY: Thank you also. I want to thank you for your service.
But let me just say to everybody here: We have 135,000 veterans waiting six months to see a doctor for the first time just to get their prescription drugs. We have 400,000 veterans in this country who have been denied access in a whole category to the VA. We've had cuts in the active-duty military personnel being able to have their kids get adequate funding for schools.
The Reserves are losing their health care when they come back, they may lose their job. There's a disparity in pay between them, and I think it is clear that every single one of us up here would believe that we're tired of hearing Tom DeLay and Dick Cheney and others throw patriotism at us.
We're taking back the flag for the United States of America, and we're going to make it clear the real definition of patriotism is keeping faith with those who wore the uniform of their country. And we are going to do that.
You are, I'm told, a stroke survivor …
QUESTION: Yes.
WOODRUFF: … and you have concerns about health care, specifically about prescription drugs.
QUESTION: Yes. Forgive me for having to read this.
I am a stroke survivor, I am disabled and on a fixed income. For seven months I went without prescription medication because we cannot afford supplemental insurance to my Medicare.
I chose food over medicine.
KERRY: The pharmacy benefit managers are charging additional money for rebates, kickbacks, all kinds of schemes, almost 16 billions of extra costs.
What we need is a president who is determined to have a Medicare prescription drug benefit; make bulk purchasing available to the states, so Governor Napolitano and others can purchase in bulk but lower costs out to their citizens; and hold the companies accountable on the patent laws so we can put generics in the marketplace.
WOODRUFF: All right. Senator…
KERRY: If we do that, we can lower the costs for all Americans.
KERRY: I'm not sure that that is even applicable here. Do you even have health care for your employees?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
KERRY: I didn't think so. So that doesn't even apply what he said to you.
You're talking about the burden of taxation itself, as a whole, on a small business.
I owned a small business once. And I've been chairman of the Small Business Committee, and we have worked hard to provide access to credit, additional working capital to you.
I have a plan where you could actually borrow from your own revenues so that you would lower your tax burden, and you'd simply have to pay it back at a later time to give you working capital so you can grow.
This SBA under President Bush has cut funding, cut lending, and it's one of the worst providers to small businesses in the country in years.
KERRY: So what we need to do is relieve your burden. And I have to tell you, both Governor Dean and Mr. Gephardt have said they want to get rid of the whole Bush tax cut. If you get rid of the whole Bush tax cut, you're getting rid of the Democratic part of the cut that we put in, the 10 percent bracket. You're going to pay more tax if you do what they want.
You get rid of the child credit, and anybody earning $40,000 is going to pay an additional $2,000.
WOODRUFF: All right, Senator.
KERRY: So your burden will go up under their plan. Under my plan, it will go down.
WOODRUFF: All right, we barely have a minute and we want to get a question in for Senator Kerry. Vanessa Jenney, a registered nurse, you want to stand up with a question for the senator, please.
QUESTION: I'm sorry.
Thank you for coming here. You know, if elected president, what would you do–I heard Senator Lieberman discuss this–but what would your solution be to immigration? We have thousands dying in our deserts. What would you do to help the immigrants?
KERRY: Well, no human being should be forced, in order to find work and to find safety and a future, to die in anybody's desert. And this president has broken his promises with respect to immigration and immigration reform. His great friend President Fox barely talks to him anymore.
We need a president who is committed to creating a guest worker program, an earned legalization program, and takes away any incentive for anybody to have to go into the desert in order to cross over to find work.
We also need to make it fair in America again and restore the health care benefits that go to those who are legal immigrants. And I believe we ought to have accelerated citizenship for those 37,000 legal immigrants who are serving in the armed forces of the United States today, immediately.