JK Today: John Kerry wraps up his College Tour with a blow-out “Change Starts with U” rally at the University of Pittsburgh. With a poll this week showing John Kerry has a 10 point margin over George Bush among college students, he will talk about what’s at stake for young people in the election of 2004.
John Kerry: Service for College
· Service is already a way of life for millions of students who are breaking records with their community involvement. And following September 11th, Americans everywhere were ready to serve and sacrifice like no time since World War II.
· But George Bush squandered that moment. While so many Americans were asking “what can I do?”, George Bush was turning back bipartisan proposals to expand service programs. Instead of keeping his promise to expand AmeriCorps, his bureaucratic failures ended up cutting its budget and pushing more students out of service.
· John Kerry’s Compact with the Next Generation renews the basic promise at the heart of America: if you do right by your country, your country will do right by you. That’s why John Kerry will create the largest expansion of national service in history. Within a decade, he will enlist 500,000 Americans in service programs, and will help every single one of them pay for four years of college.
· This year, college tuition rose at a record 28%, putting the price of college beyond the reach of 220,000 Americans who could have afforded it last year. Too many students are graduating college so burdened with debt that they’re spending the rest of their lives paying it off. This is wrong.
· John Kerry’s “Service for College” offers a simple deal to thousands of Americans: If you will serve for two years in one of America’s toughest and most important jobs, we will pay for four years of tuition at the typical public university.
· “Service for College” will ask young people to help America fulfill some of our greatest needs – building homes, mentoring children, keeping our communities clean, and helping to protect our homeland.
· John Kerry will pay for these initiatives by ending a $13 billion "windfall" that banks earn for making government-backed student loans.
John Kerry: A Plan to Win in Iraq
· John Kerry has laid out a plan to win the peace in Iraq. Today, we are paying the price for this Administration’s failure to come up with such a plan and their decision to go-it-alone in Iraq. It’s time for a new direction.
· The extremists attacking our forces should know they will not succeed in dividing America, and John Kerry is committed to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful and pluralistic society.
· John Kerry has a three-step plan to proceed in Iraq:
1. Improve Security in Iraq. If our military commanders request more troops, we should deploy them, and we should give our troops the equipment and the support they need to fight. We must also develop a political strategy that leads to the creation of an Iraqi governing entity that has popular legitimacy.
2. Make the United Nations a Full Partner. The UN should be a full partner in Iraq, responsible for the political transition while the U.S. remains responsible for the international military coalition. The Administration has finally acknowledged their failures by turning to U.N. representative Lakhdar Brahimi to develop a formula for an interim Iraqi government that each of the major Iraqi factions can accept. We must let him accomplish this mission. And the United States should say in advance that we stand by the plan he proposes.
3. Get Greater International Military Support. We should urge NATO to create a new out-of-area operation for Iraq under the lead of a U.S. commander. This would help us obtain more troops from major powers. The events of the past week will make other countires reluctant to put their citizens at risk. But we can bring in the international community if we place the remainder of the Iraqi transition under international authority.
George Bush’s Press Conference: Mistakes Were Made
· As Senator Kerry and countless others have said, we must continue to support our troops and make sure that they have all they need to win the peace in Iraq.
· But the President has again failed to lay out a plan or strategy for Iraq other than hunkering down and continuing down the wrong path we’re on.
· President Bush accepted no responsibility and made no apology for his failed Iraq policies.
He had the opportunity to put to rest the many unanswered questions that about Iraq, the missing WMD, and his plans to bring stability to the region. He did not do that.
· Instead, he continued to erode his own credibility by repeating claims that have been proven false, like linking 9/11 and Iraq – a connection that even he has previously disavowed.
· We all accept the need for a free Iraq, but with deaths mounting and American sacrifice increasing, we need a plan that secures real international involvement, gets the targets off our troops, and moves toward a real handoff of power that results in an Iraq that is both free and democratic.
· What we heard from President Bush about the situation in Iraq is at odds with what we are seeing every night on the TV news about Iraq.
John Kerry: Service for College
· Service is already a way of life for millions of students who are breaking records with their community involvement. And following September 11th, Americans everywhere were ready to serve and sacrifice like no time since World War II.
· But George Bush squandered that moment. While so many Americans were asking “what can I do?”, George Bush was turning back bipartisan proposals to expand service programs. Instead of keeping his promise to expand AmeriCorps, his bureaucratic failures ended up cutting its budget and pushing more students out of service.
· John Kerry’s Compact with the Next Generation renews the basic promise at the heart of America: if you do right by your country, your country will do right by you. That’s why John Kerry will create the largest expansion of national service in history. Within a decade, he will enlist 500,000 Americans in service programs, and will help every single one of them pay for four years of college.
· This year, college tuition rose at a record 28%, putting the price of college beyond the reach of 220,000 Americans who could have afforded it last year. Too many students are graduating college so burdened with debt that they’re spending the rest of their lives paying it off. This is wrong.
· John Kerry’s “Service for College” offers a simple deal to thousands of Americans: If you will serve for two years in one of America’s toughest and most important jobs, we will pay for four years of tuition at the typical public university.
· “Service for College” will ask young people to help America fulfill some of our greatest needs – building homes, mentoring children, keeping our communities clean, and helping to protect our homeland.
· John Kerry will pay for these initiatives by ending a $13 billion "windfall" that banks earn for making government-backed student loans.
John Kerry: A Plan to Win in Iraq
· John Kerry has laid out a plan to win the peace in Iraq. Today, we are paying the price for this Administration’s failure to come up with such a plan and their decision to go-it-alone in Iraq. It’s time for a new direction.
· The extremists attacking our forces should know they will not succeed in dividing America, and John Kerry is committed to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful and pluralistic society.
· John Kerry has a three-step plan to proceed in Iraq:
1. Improve Security in Iraq. If our military commanders request more troops, we should deploy them, and we should give our troops the equipment and the support they need to fight. We must also develop a political strategy that leads to the creation of an Iraqi governing entity that has popular legitimacy.
2. Make the United Nations a Full Partner. The UN should be a full partner in Iraq, responsible for the political transition while the U.S. remains responsible for the international military coalition. The Administration has finally acknowledged their failures by turning to U.N. representative Lakhdar Brahimi to develop a formula for an interim Iraqi government that each of the major Iraqi factions can accept. We must let him accomplish this mission. And the United States should say in advance that we stand by the plan he proposes.
3. Get Greater International Military Support. We should urge NATO to create a new out-of-area operation for Iraq under the lead of a U.S. commander. This would help us obtain more troops from major powers. The events of the past week will make other countires reluctant to put their citizens at risk. But we can bring in the international community if we place the remainder of the Iraqi transition under international authority.
George Bush’s Press Conference: Mistakes Were Made
· As Senator Kerry and countless others have said, we must continue to support our troops and make sure that they have all they need to win the peace in Iraq.
· But the President has again failed to lay out a plan or strategy for Iraq other than hunkering down and continuing down the wrong path we’re on.
· President Bush accepted no responsibility and made no apology for his failed Iraq policies.
He had the opportunity to put to rest the many unanswered questions that about Iraq, the missing WMD, and his plans to bring stability to the region. He did not do that.
· Instead, he continued to erode his own credibility by repeating claims that have been proven false, like linking 9/11 and Iraq – a connection that even he has previously disavowed.
· We all accept the need for a free Iraq, but with deaths mounting and American sacrifice increasing, we need a plan that secures real international involvement, gets the targets off our troops, and moves toward a real handoff of power that results in an Iraq that is both free and democratic.
· What we heard from President Bush about the situation in Iraq is at odds with what we are seeing every night on the TV news about Iraq.
I'm feelin happy now 
