Kerry says Bush policy sending jobs overseas

PORTLAND – Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Tuesday that Bush administration policy on outsourcing is sending higher-paying jobs overseas and replacing them with low-wage jobs in Oregon.

Kerry also criticized Bush for high gasoline prices that have topped $2 a gallon and appear to be heading for a record $3 a gallon in Oregon.

He accused the Bush administration of allowing record profits for oil companies making “sweetheart deals” with Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries that have raised gasoline prices an average of nearly $1 a gallon in Oregon since Bush took office.

The increase forces the typical Oregon family to pay an extra $1,006 a year for gasoline, Kerry said.

He said Oregon should boost investment in alternative energy sources, such as wind-generated electricity, to help ease dependence on oil.

“The jobs that are being created in Oregon and elsewhere are paying significantly less than the jobs we’re losing,” Kerry said in an interview after an appearance with former rival Howard Dean at a job training center.

The average worker is losing ground because wages are declining while other costs are going up, Kerry said.

“The cost of health care has gone up 50 percent. The cost of tuition is up 28 percent. The cost of gasoline is up to record heights. We have a wage recession in America,” he said.

Kerry hammered on jobs and the economy during his visit to the Metropolitan Workforce Training Center in a northeast neighborhood dominated by blue-collar workers and Democratic voters.

He criticized President Bush for a tax policy that Kerry said encourages big corporations to move overseas and take jobs with them. Worse, Kerry said, is that workers end up paying for the move with their tax dollars.

“I’m going to end the idea that any American workers should subsidize the loss of their own jobs,” Kerry said.

Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, who is leading the Bush campaign in the state, said Kerry’s proposals would push the state and national economy in the wrong direction.

“John Kerry’s plans for higher taxes and more government spending would derail President Bush’s pro-growth policies that led to last month’s half percent decrease in Oregon’s unemployment rate and the creation of 13,400 Oregon jobs,” Smith said.

The jobless rate in Oregon fell a half percentage point in April, to 6.7 percent from 7.2 percent in March, but it was still a full percentage point above the national rate.

Kerry said the rally was too little, too late.

“Even if George Bush had two or three more months of good job growth, he will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a loss of jobs during his presidency,” Kerry said. “I don’t think that’s a good record.”

Kerry also called for universal health care for children, extending some Medicare benefits to the 55 to 64 age bracket, and shifting catastrophic health care coverage to the government in order to reduce insurance costs for routine care for small businesses and other employers struggling to cover their workers.

Dean, the former Vermont governor and a physician, called the Kerry plan “the most sensible, thoughtful health care plan I’ve seen in a long time.”