Kerry proposals

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Bush tax cuts: would repeal for income exceeding $200,000.

Tax credits: would retain increase in child tax credit and decrease in so-called marriage penalty.

Deficit goal: plans to cut deficit in half by end of first term.

Social Security: would create a one-year "payroll tax holiday," in which no Social Security tax would be collected on the first $10,000 of income.

Health care: would expand federal-state children's health-insurance program to cover low-income young adults through age 24 and some low-income parents; create rebate pool to help businesses pay for catastrophic health-care costs if businesses provide employees with health care and keep premiums low; allow some individuals to buy into type of health plan available to members of Congress, with tax credits for the unemployed and small-business employees.

Job creation: would give $50 billion in aid to states over two years; wants new tax breaks for companies creating jobs at home but end to tax breaks for companies moving offshore.

Trade: backs NAFTA, World Trade Organization and China trade deals; backs tougher standards but not "shutting the door" to trade.

National security: supported giving the administration the authority to go to war but opposed the $87 billion package; contends he cast the pro-war vote based on faulty U.S. intelligence, and that the president misused that authority by rushing into the conflict.

Education: proposes a $3.2 billion community-service plan for high-school students that would qualify them for the equivalent of their state's four-year public-college tuition; opposes vouchers.
 
Abortion: supports abortion rights; says he would appoint only judges who support legalized abortion; opposed the late-term-abortion ban.

Same-sex marriage: opposes but supports right to civil unions that bestow gay couples with domestic-partner benefits; opposes constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Guns: opposes bill protecting gun industry from lawsuits; supports renewing assault-weapons ban — and would ban "copycat" assault weapons as well; supports requiring background check for gun buyers at gun shows; would require handguns to be sold with child-safety locks.

Homeland security: would retrain National Guard to have as central mission ability to evacuate, quarantine and assist local communities in the event of an attack; double size of volunteer AmeriCorps to also focus on homeland security; create Community Defense Service trained in medical response and community planning for an attack; provide money to hire 100,000 police officers and 100,000 firefighters nationwide.

Patriot Act: voted for the measure but would like to repeal some provisions, including the ability to postpone notification when law enforcement secretly carries out a search warrant or seizes evidence; wants to require notice of search within seven days; would eliminate warrants that allow, without probable cause, search of library and business records.

Affirmative action: supports affirmative action, although he has faced criticism for remarks in 1992 when he suggested the program was "limited and divisive."

Gays in military: wants to allow gays to serve openly.

Death penalty: opposes, saying it is applied unfairly; supports execution for foreign terrorists.

Environment: supports Kyoto protocol and opposes drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; has said Clear Skies plan would delay emissions cuts and would increase pollution by 21 million tons a year.

Energy: wants to pressure OPEC to start providing more oil; would stop diverting oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until prices stabilize; has goal of getting 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and eliminating dependence on oil from the Middle East within 10 years.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch