Kerry Calls For A Return To Fiscal Discipline In U.S.

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry pledged in an editorial published Tuesday to restore fiscal discipline in the United States if voters send him to the White House, and to shrink the deficit by one half in four years.
On November 2, election day, "We will have a national shareholders meeting. On the ballot will be the choice to continue with president (George W.) Bush's policies or return to fiscal sanity and pro-growth polices that proved so successful in the 1990s," Kerry said in the editorial published by The Wall Street Journal.
"I will restore fiscal discipline and cut the deficit in half in four years. First by imposing caps, so that discretionary spending - outside of security and education - does not grow faster than inflation," Kerry said ahead of a speech on the economy he was to deliver in Detroit, Michigan.
"Cleaning up President Bush's fiscal mess will not be easy (...) but we have to make the tough choices to move America's growing deficits back in the right direction," Kerry wrote.
"From missions to Mars to a pricey Medicare bill, President Bush has proposed or passed more than six trillion dollars in initiatives without paying for any of them."
The deficit for the 2004 fiscal year ending September 30 was expected to hit a record 422 billion dollars, the Congressional Budget Office said September 7.