HOUSTON - Challenging President Bush (news - web sites) on his home turf Saturday, John Kerry (news - web sites) decried a "four-year trail of broken promises" that he said have left economic ruin and given free rein to corporate polluters. Not far away, Bush defended his handling of the economy and suggested that Kerry's proposals would raise taxes.
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Kerry was broadening his populist economic themes to challenge Bush on the environment and his handling of conflicts abroad as the president sought to cast himself as a world leader in a summit with Mexico's president, Vicente Fox (news - web sites). The two presidential rivals traced early outlines of a coming economic fight that is likely to be central to the campaign.
"George Bush is a walking contradiction and a walking barrel of broken promises," Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, said to several hundred supporters at a community college.
Speaking with reporters at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, 206 miles from Kerry's event in Houston, Bush said "our economy is getting stronger" and challenged Kerry — though not by name.
"Raising taxes will make it harder for people to find work," Bush said. Kerry has called for repealing the portions of Bush's tax cut that went to wealthy taxpayers, a move that Bush characterizes as a tax increase.
Kerry fired back quickly, using a San Antonio rally to contend Bush has "already departed from the truth."
"Once again President Bush has told one of those tall Texas tales," he said. "I think George Bush ought to leave the ranch and come out and talk to people who have lost their jobs."
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