CLIVE, Iowa, Oct 4 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush signed legislation extending popular tax cuts in this key up-for-grabs state Monday and charged that Senator John Kerry's foreign policy would be "dangerous for world peace."
Bush noted that his Democratic rival voted against the 1991 war to oust Saddam Hussein's troops from Kuwait even though "under any scrutiny, we passed the global test" for legitimate military action.
"The policies of my opponent are dangerous for world peace. If they were implemented, they would make this world not more peaceful but more dangerous," the president declared at a campaign rally.
With less than one month before the November 2 election, Bush also likened Kerry's medical policy proposals to the failed attempt to overhaul health care that was spearheaded by then first lady Hillary Clinton ten years ago.
"I believe that decisions ought to be made by you and your doctor. My opponent believes that the federal government ought to be making the decisions," Bush told cheering supporters the Iowa capital of Des Moines.
"He's got a system that's creeping toward 'Hillarycare,'" the president said, a reference to Clinton's initiative, which has widely been blamed for costing the Democrats control of the US Congress in 1994.
In a day of sharp attacks on the Democrat, the president also said Kerry's proposal to roll back tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans would fall short and that he would have to raise taxes on the US middle class.
As he signed the tax extension bill, estimated at 146 billion dollars, Bush renewed his call for making permanent his 10-year, trillion-dollar tax cuts and said those measures had spurred the flagging US economy.
"The tax relief comes at just the right time for America," said Bush, whose visit to the battleground state of Iowa guaranteed him local headlines and evening newscasts. "We need to make all the tax relief permanent."
Bush, who stands to become the first US president since the Great Depression to oversee a net job loss, promised that the tax reduction "will have good effects throughout the economy."
Some of Bush's strikes seemed geared to providing belated rebuttals to Kerry's comments on Thursday during their first presidential debate, which appeared to have cost the president a few percentage points in national polls.
Many prominent Republicans scored the 90-minuted exchange on national security as a win for Kerry, amid widespread comment on Bush's annoyed or unsettled looks and frequent shows of impatience.
Bush played off Kerry's position that any US preemptive military action ought to pass a "global test," claiming that the senator was giving other nations a veto over Washington's use of force.
"Think about that now: Our most solemn duty is to protect you. Can you imagine taking an international poll of nations to determine whether or not we need to protect you?" the president asked rhetorically.
Kerry prefaced his comments by saying that: "No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America."
"But if and when you do it ... you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."
Kerry aides have said he deliberately spoke in the past tense to indicate that the United States would act without international support.
As Bush's rally wound down, one supporter urged him: "I would like to know if, when you go in to the next debate, if you would stand up and tell that opponent of yours exactly what you're saying today."
Bush and Kerry next face off on Friday in the second of three such exchanges. Vice President Dick Cheney and Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, were to clash Tuesday in their only debate.