Bush-Kerry final debate hits taxes, jobs, health

5.00pm

UPDATE - TEMPE, Arizona - President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry battled over health care, jobs and taxes in their final debate, with Bush criticising Kerry's "far left" Senate record and Kerry arguing the middle class had lost ground under the president.

In the last of three crucial debates in a deadlocked White House race, Bush and Kerry frequently clashed over their public records but turned down the volume from the angry tone of their first two debates.

Bush said Kerry had "no record of leadership" during his 20 years in the Senate and warned he would raise taxes, boost spending and support more government intervention in health care.

"There's a mainstream of American politics and you sit right on the far left bank," Bush told Kerry, repeatedly linking the Massachusetts senator to his liberal Senate colleague, Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Kerry hammered Bush for turning his back on the middle class by building a record of job losses, rising budget deficits and ballooning health care costs.

"I'm going to stand up and fight for the American worker, and I'm going to do it in a way that is fiscally sound," Kerry said, promising to "restore the fiscal discipline we had in the 1990s."

The stakes were high for the final debate, with polls showing the race a dead heat and both candidates trying to take advantage of their last chance to reach a television audience of tens of millions before the Nov. 2 election.

The two candidates took a softer tone than in earlier debates, discussing their faith and families and reluctantly praising each at times. But although the debate was focused on domestic issues, they also took advantage of several chances to weave in the Iraq war.

Kerry blamed Bush for rushing into the Iraq war and pushing away allies, and said "as a result America is now bearing this extraordinary burden where we are not as safe as we ought to be. We can do a better job of homeland security."

Bush pointed with pride to the Afghan elections last weekend as evidence his policies are working and said "freedom is on the march."

On domestic issues, Kerry attacked Bush's record on health care, saying 5 million of the 45 million uninsured Americans had lost their health insurance under Bush as costs continued to rise.

"This president has turned his back on the wellness of America," Kerry said, adding the health care system in the United States was "not working for the American family and it's gotten worse."

Kerry has proposed a health care plan that would cover most children and let people buy into the federal plan that covers members of Congress. The cost has been put at US$900 billion over 10 years, although Bush says it will cost US$1.5 trillion.

'EMPTY PROMISE'

Bush said Kerry's health care plan was an "empty promise" and a "bait and switch" program that he would never be able to pay for.

"A plan is not a litany of complaints and a plan is not a program that you can't pay for," Bush said. "I believe the role of government is to stand side by side with our citizens to help them realise their dreams, not tell citizens how to live their lives."

Bush repeatedly attacked Kerry's Senate record and accused him of supporting tax increases 98 times and voting to exceed the budget caps 277 times.

"My opponent talks about fiscal sanity. His record in the United States Senate does not match his rhetoric," Bush said.

Kerry said that "anybody can play with these votes, everybody knows that" and said he had voted for tax cuts over 600 times. He said Bush had no standing to question his fiscal judgment.

"Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order," Kerry said, referring to the murderous mob boss in the US television program "The Sopranos."

"This president has taken a US$5.6 trillion surplus and turned it into deficits as far as the eye can see," Kerry said.

The shift to domestic issues was supposed to be an advantage for Kerry, who leads Bush in most polls on his ability to lead the country on jobs, the economy, health care and the environment.

But those issues, the bread-and-butter domestic agenda for Democrats for decades, have been drowned out in the campaign this year by the clamorous debate over Iraq.

Bush accused Kerry, who says he will repeal Bush's tax cuts for those making more than US$200,000 but provide targeted tax breaks to lower-income earners, of planning a far larger tax increase.

"There is a tax gap, and guess who usually ends up filling the tax gap? The middle class," Bush said.

But Kerry said Bush's administration had consistently favoured special interests over everyday Americans, and said the first step to restoring fiscal sanity was "rolling back George Bush's unaffordable tax cut for the wealthiest people."

- REUTERS