A New Prosperity: Seats for All at the Welcome Table 

"America has been successful because it offers a realistic shot at a better life.  America has been successful because poverty has been a stage, not a fate.  America has been successful because anyone can ascend the ladder and transcend their birth." 

                                                            — George W. Bush

             We want to expand opportunity instead of government.  Governor Bush calls this "the Duty of Hope."  We see it as our duty to act.  But whatever we name it, the goal is the same — to give hope and real upward mobility to those who have never known either.  It’s clear that the old left-liberal order of social policy has collapsed in failure; and its failure was the most egregious among whom it most professed to serve: the poor and those on the margins of society. 

            The time is here to act, to bring hope, to expand opportunity.  Republican governors throughout the country sparked a revolution that brought about the greatest social policy change in nearly 60 years — welfare reform.   Inspired by the innovative reforms of Republican governors that successfully moved families from welfare dependence to the independence of work, congressional Republicans passed landmark welfare reform legislation in 1996 that has helped millions of Americans break the cycle of welfare and gain independence for their families.  Because of that legislation — turning welfare resources and decision-making back to the states, with the understanding that recipients must meet a work requirement and such assistance would be only temporary — about six million Americans are now gainfully employed, many for the first time.  We salute them.

            And now it’s time to take more steps in the right direction by helping these families climb the opportunity ladder.  It won’t be easy, but welfare reform wasn’t easy either, though the results were surely worth the fight.  Here are our next steps:

• Reward work with tax reform that takes 6 million families off the tax rolls, cuts the rate for those who remain on the rolls, and doubles the child tax credit to $1,000.
  

• Implement the "American Dream Down Payment" program, which will allow a half million families who currently draw federal rental assistance to become homeowners, and allow families receiving federal rental payments to apply one year’s worth of their existing assistance money toward the purchase of their own first home, thus becoming independent of any further government housing assistance.  This approach builds upon our long standing commitment to resident management of public housing and other initiatives.
  

• Increase the supply of affordable housing for low-income working families and rehabilitate abandoned housing that blights neighborhoods by establishing the Renewing the Dream tax credit.  This investor-based tax credit will create or renovate more than 100,000 single-family housing units in distressed communities. 
  

• Build savings and personal wealth through Individual Development Accounts, in partnership with banks, to accelerate the savings of low-income earners.

             For many individuals, poverty signals more than the lack of money.  It often represents obstacles that cannot be overcome with just a paycheck.  These are the challenging cases, where government aid is least effective.  These, too, are the situations where neighborhood and faith-based intervention has its greatest power.  For this reason, the Republican Congress mandated charitable choice in the welfare reform law of 1996, allowing states to contract with faith-based providers for welfare services on the same basis as any other providers.  The current administration has done its utmost to block the implementation of that provision, insisting that all symbols of religion must be removed or covered over — precisely what the 1996 provisions set out to prevent.  The result is that many of the most successful service programs are essentially blacklisted because they will neither conceal nor compromise the faith that makes them so effective in changing lives.  While this is unfair to faith-based organizations, it is unjust to those whom they could help conquer abuse, addiction, and hopelessness.     

            Texas was the first state to implement charitable choice in welfare, and its governor intends to expand it to all federally-funded human services programs. We support his plans to unbar the gates of the government ghetto, inviting into the American dream those who are now in its shadows and using the dedication and expertise of faith communities to make it happen. 

            This is what we propose:

• Apply charitable Choice to all federal social service programs.
  

• Encourage an outpouring of giving by extending the current federal charity tax deduction to the 70 percent of all tax filers who do not itemize their deductions and by allowing people to make donations tax-free from their IRAs. 
  

• Promote corporate giving by raising the cap on their charitable deductions and assuring them liability protection for their in-kind donations.

             The renewal of entire communities is an awesome task and involves one human face, one human heart at a time. But the American people have a long and seasoned history of working wonders.  Government does have a role to play, but as a partner, not a rival, to the armies of compassion.  These forces have roots in the areas they serve, and their leaders are people to whom the disadvantaged are not statistics, but neighbors, friends, and moral individuals created in the image of God.  With these approaches government becomes a partner with community and faith-based providers in supporting families and children and helping them improve their opportunities for a better life.

CREATING GOOD JOBS

A strong America keeps the promise of opportunity for all and heeds the warning of special privileges for none. That's the America we believe in. That's the America we're fighting for. And that's the America we can build together.

In President George Bush's America, unfortunately, too often you need special privileges if you want opportunity. This White House values wealth over hard work, lavishes special treatment upon a fortunate few at the expense of most businesses and working people, and defends policies that weaken America's competitive position and destroy American jobs. Instead of meeting the challenge of globalization by strengthening our workers' ability to compete and win, this Administration uses globalization as an excuse not to fight for American jobs.

John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democratic Party believe in a better America—a strong America.

We believe that a strong America begins at home, with good jobs that support families and an equal chance for all our people.

We believe in progress that brings prosperity for all Americans, not just for those who are already successful. We believe that good jobs will help strengthen and expand the strongest middle class the world has ever known. We believe the private sector, not government, is the engine of economic growth and job creation. Government's responsibility is to create an environment that will promote private sector investment, foster vigorous competition, and strengthen the foundations of an innovative economy.

We believe Americans are the smartest, toughest competitors in the world. Our products and ideas can compete and win anywhere, as long as we're given a fair chance. And our companies can keep and create jobs in America without sacrificing competitiveness.

We will fight for American jobs and we will fight for American workers. Under John Kerry and John Edwards, we will revive America's manufacturing sector, create new jobs and protect existing ones by ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and cutting taxes for companies that create jobs here at home; by fighting for free, fair and balanced trade; by encouraging investment in small businesses and helping companies deal with rising health care costs; by promoting new technologies, like energy, that will lead to the companies and jobs of tomorrow; and by ensuring that people of every age learn the skills to succeed in today's economy.

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A plan to reinvigorate manufacturing. Manufacturing has lost 2.5 million jobs under President Bush in its worst jobs crisis since the Depression. John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats will launch a concerted effort to revitalize American manufacturing. The measures outlined above are important components of our overall strategy. In addition, based on the model that has helped launch some of America's most successful companies, we will establish new investment corporations to give small and medium-sized businesses access to capital. And we will support the growth of high-technology "clusters" that invest in new industries around research institutions.

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Investing in technology to create good jobs. We will invest in the technologies of the future, from renewable energy to nanotechnology to biomedicine, and will work to make permanent the research and development tax credit. We will achieve universal access to broadband services, which could add $500 billion to our economy, generate 1.2 million jobs, and transform the way we learn and work. And we will put science ahead of ideology in research and policymaking.

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Free markets and honest competition. Economic growth and job creation depend on free markets and competition, but competition and free markets depend on trust, transparency, and integrity. We are committed to requiring honesty in corporate accounting effective corporate governance, a fair shake for small investors and worker pension funds, a level playing field and competitive bidding practices for those who wish to transact business with the government, and vigorous prosecution of criminal conduct in executive suites.

Promoting small businesses. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy. We will encourage small business growth with a plan to make it easier for small businesses to secure capital and loans. We support tax credits and energy investments that slash overall operating costs for small businesses and encourage them to grow and expand here in America. For America's 350,000 small manufacturers, which account for over half the total value of U.S. industrial production and employ 11 million people in high-skill, high-wage jobs, we will double funding to use technology to grow.

We will help businesses cope with the skyrocketing cost of health care by reforming our health care system and cutting taxes to help small businesses pay for health insurance. Retiree health costs impose major burdens on many employers, particularly manufacturers, and we will push for reform so that companies are not forced to choose among retirees, current workers, and their own ability to compete.

Fiscal Relief in an economic downturn. When states are the thrust into a fiscal crisis due to a national economic downturn, we should support Federal fiscal relief to states as an effective tool to jumpstart growth and job creation, and to prevent harmful tuition and tax increases, as well as painful cuts to vital education, health, homeland security, and other critical services; and to prevent underfunded mandates.

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Unlike the Bush administration, we will always stand by workers who lose their jobs as the economy changes. We will require companies to give employees at least three months notice before a planned shutdown. We will expand efforts to help manufacturers, workers, the long-term unemployed, and communities hurt by imports, including extending trade adjustment assistance to workers in the service sectors and making health insurance more affordable for workers who lose their jobs due to trade. Through our jobs plan, we will bring hope and jobs back to the cities and small towns devastated by the shuttering of factories.

Poverty and Unemployment