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During the past 20 years, the author has watch China move from being a developing country into an industrial superpower
Money Moves, 5/24: Chocomize Co-Founder Fabian Kaempfer talks with Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton about the business of customizing chocolate
The president's campaign has a new rule—no cell phones allowed
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The Italian automaker and others are adding hybrid technology to elite cars
The storied bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County changed the face of California
Schools cultivate ties with startups before they're big successes
Dave McClure's traveling venture capital show scours the world for promising startups
Get Four
|  | JULY 26, 2004
Talking Business with John Kerry [Page 2 of 2] Q: The deal you are offering voters seems straightforward -- more affordable health care and more money for schools, financed by higher taxes on the rich. A: It's going to be financed by rolling back [cuts for families earning more than $200,000]. I'm not going to tax the wealthy. There are pejoratives in the phrasing. Q: Are you sure repeal will get you all the money you need? A: Yes, I am absolutely positive it is really there. Q: And what about deficit reduction? A: I am absolutely committed to it.... Why is Warren Buffett supporting me? Why is Barry Diller supporting me? Why [are] Steve Jobs and Lee Iacocca supporting me? It's because they know I can restore fiscal responsibility. I will restore America's reputation in the world, which is a surcharge on business today. Some $10 to $12 [of the cost] on a barrel of oil is a surcharge, according to economists, based on the instability of the world. And in addition to that, we're losing business abroad because a whole bunch of people are saying, "I don't want to deal with America, I don't want the baggage." We need a President who can restore order and our reputation. I think this Administration has been terrible for business. I can put together a far more effective business climate. Q: What about Alan Greenspan's role in the prosperity we have seen? A: I am respectful of our monetary policy needs. I have always given Alan Greenspan huge credit for the '90s boom. I think he was brilliant the way he managed monetary policy. At the same time, Congress -- under Democratic leadership -- showed the discipline of being fiscally responsible. And the combined message to Wall Street empowered business. You have these politicians running around saying, "We created these jobs." The fact is that American business defied all those books about Japan Inc., the China Century. They downsized, they recapitalized, they reinvested. And we took off. Q: But Greenspan supported the Bush tax cuts... A: I'm not sure he loves that idea today. Q: Both you and President Bush propose to cut the deficit in half over four years -- what's the difference? A: But he doesn't! He has $6 trillion in proposals and initiatives that are not paid for. I don't. I've showed you the loopholes I would close. Show me any loophole George Bush has talked about closing. I mean, the Bush talk on this is fantasyland, folks.... He told you we weren't going to have a deficit, we could afford the tax cuts. That was the biggest B.S. I've ever heard in my life. We went straight into deficit. Q: So you believe that just by rolling back tax cuts for top-end taxpayers, you can fund a health plan and deficit reduction? A: Yes -- absolutely. Let me be very clear: I like low marginal rates. I fought to get low marginal rates. I voted for going down to the 28% and 14% brackets [in 1986]. I am not going to raise marginal rates -- ever -- above the rates we had under Bill Clinton. Q: Under your plan, upper-income individuals also lose their tax cuts for capital gains and dividends. Won't that hurt investment? A: With all due respect, look at what happened to investment in the 1990s. Q: We had a tech boom. A: I believe we can have a tech boom again.... [But] Bob Rubin and a lot of smart people tell me the capital-gains differential [doesn't matter much]. When you're at [a capital-gains rate of] 20%, it doesn't deter you from making millions with a new idea. So you're not going to change investment patterns. Q: How can you expand health-care eligibility and control costs? A: Let me tell you how: You're paying for very inefficient delivery of care [today].... I put together a set of principles. I want to have the marketplace work. I want people to have choice. I don't want Washington mandates. I don't want a new bureaucracy.... What we've done is create a huge incentive for business to say: "That makes so much sense that I'm buying in." In exchange for [companies] having an early health-and-wellness program [and] for [agreeing to] pass the savings along to their employees...we're going to pick up 75% of the cost of catastrophic care. That reduces their costs and makes them more competitive. Lowering the cost of health care will make America more competitive. George W. Bush had four years to offer America any plan at all, even one for the reduction of paperwork and waste.... You go to the bank you take out money, it's a penny a transaction. You go the hospital and take out your record, it's 25 bucks a transaction. Tell me any business that works with the overhead of the American health system? Is the President talking about it? No. He should be. That's the power of the bully pulpit. Q: A lot of experts are saying the Medicare system will collapse under the weight of the baby boomer retirement. What do you think should be done? A: You have to see what efficiencies you can get. There's fraud. There's still waste and abuse in the system. And we have not begun to scratch the surface of getting that. Part of that is technology.... A lot of companies have much more effective billing systems [than the government]. We're 30 years behind in terms of how we manage how billings and reimbursements. You can cut the costs enormously. That will push out the [Medicare crunch] date quite far. I'm going to put together a very smart group of people. It's not going to be secret. Let's have this discussion openly in America... If somebody has a better idea how to do it, we'll do it. Right now, I think we can fix it. Q: You're saying we don't need radical reform of Medicare anytime soon... A: If we strengthen our economy, do a better job of preventive and wellness [programs] and other things, we can significantly reduce the burden on the system, no question about it. Q: If Congress balks at the tax changes you seek and you're short of cash for your programs, then what? A: We would not be able to do as much on health care, and that is the choice for America. That is the choice of this race. And that's why I've been very up-front and honest. I go to an audience, whether it's West Virginia or Iowa, and I look 'em in the eye, and I say, "look folks, this is about a choice." George Bush wants to defend tax cuts for folks earning more than $200,000 a year. I say we can have [better] health care if we roll those back. That's your choice. And I believe if I get elected, America will have made that choice.
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