John Kerry as a Senator

In 1984 Kerry was elected to serve as Massachusetts junior Senator. He has been reelected three more times since, the latest in 2002. Kerry’s twenty years in the Senate have provided him numerous opportunities to serve the country in many different responsibilities. He has taken a strong stand regarding civil rights and liberties, environmental issues, and supported police, firefighters, teachers, and many other community services.

Many of Kerry’s critics have been swift to paint him as a flip-flopper. It should be remembered that Kerry spent 19 years in the Senate and has cast over 6,500 votes, so both opponents and supporters will find plenty of ammunition to define him. Interestingly enough, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R) commented on “Meet the Press” that it is near impossible for any senator to be elected President. He pointed out that with so many different votes in so many different situations, any senator can be labeled a “flip-flopper.” Frist even commented that he would have no chance being elected with his record. It is interesting to note that the last four of five presidents entering the White House spring boarded from governorships we begin to see how difficult it is.

Let me take a moment and discuss some of the “flip-flops” leveled at Kerry:

Tax Cuts:
John Kerry believes that it is right to cut certain taxes under certain circumstances and wrong to cut other taxes under other circumstances. That’s hard to disagree with. And are the Republicans really for cutting all taxes, all the time, no matter what? How do they propose to finance the government? How do they propose to finance a war?

Patriot Act:
Is Kerry both for the Patriot Act and against it? Well, he voted for it, and now he criticizes it, so he must be inconsistent. First off, a thorough reading of the law might prove helpful. (You can download it here from a special Department of Justice website which couches the bill in the best possible light). Kerry voted for the bill because he believed that the law would do more good than harm. Does that mean he thinks each and every word written on each and every page is a great idea? Of course He does not, and as president he'll have the opportunity to alter the law. Kerry's website offers five proposed improvements to the Patriot Act.

NAFTA:
Did Kerry support the treaty and now want to take it away? Or will he order an immediate 120-day review of all existing trade agreements to ensure that our trade partners are living up to their labor and environment obligations. Is this revoking the treaty? Or does he think our trade partners are evading their obligations and is working on finding out whether or not they are doing so?

Iraq:
Did Kerry support the war and now attacking Bush for it? Didn’t he say in 1998 that we should use force against Iraq and now he has changed his mind? Perhaps we should remember that Iraq kicked the inspectors out in 1998 and Kerry was quite upset about it. He believed that force was necessary if Iraq refused to comply with the inspectors. When President Bush proposed legislation to use force if Iraq did not comply with the inspectors, Kerry backed it. When Bush used force even though Iraq was cooperating with the inspectors, Kerry opposed the decision and labeled a “flipped-flopper” by those attempting to box him into a narrowly-held point of view.

Another critique of Senator Kerry’s record comes with taking his voting record out of context. It has been said that John Kerry wants to raise the gas tax by 50 cents. It has also been implied that this will be a goal of Kerry’s once he takes office. What they fail to mention is that Kerry has not voted for a gas tax increase in over 10 years. When he voted for the increase, gas was under a dollar a gallon and the national deficit was at a critical level. Kerry also believed that Americans should be encouraged to look toward alternative models of energy usage, hoping at the time, that this money would be used to seek out these alternative fuels, rather than sending our money, in the form of high gas prices back overseas. Situations in government arise regarding various circumstances. To judge Senator Kerry’s record using today’s situations is not only unfair, but deceptive.

Another issue worth noting is Senator Kerry’s impressive record on limiting assault weapons within our communities. Legislation supported by every police organization demands production of these weapons to be stopped. Kerry even made a detour in his 2004 campaign to cast a persuasive vote to extend the Brady Bill another 10 years banning assault weapons. Though Kerry receives low marks from the NRA for his gun control position (mainly regarding his opposition of assault weapons), he himself is a gun owner and believes that individuals retain this right to possess firearms. He has sided with the important issues brought forward by interest groups such as The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

One of the conservative media’s “talking points” is how liberal John Kerry is. Kerry has broken from his party on numerous occasions, siding with his conservative opponents. Fiscal responsibility has been one such issue. Kerry broke with the so-called "tax-and-spend liberal Democrats" when he supported the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced budget act in the mid-1980s. This legislation passed in an effort to achieve deficit reduction. He supported the President’s deficit reduction program in 1993. He also voted in favor of giving presidents line item veto authority for appropriations bills. Kerry has supported many tax cuts, particularly those aimed at the middle class or at entrepreneurial activities. He worked with Senator John McCain on making the Internet a tax-free zone, he proposed reducing the capital gains tax to zero for certain industries, and he supported reducing the dividend tax long before Bush proposed eliminating it.

Kerry’s support of using force is without question. He has supported the interests of the nation by authorizing force in Grenada in 1993, Panama in 1989, Somalia in 1992, and Kosovo in 1999. He did vote against using force in Iraq in 1991 arguing that the country was not ready for war and that diplomacy should be given more time. It should be noted that Iraq’s takeover of Kuwait was fairly peaceful with only a couple hundred Kuwaitis being killed in the aggression. In contrast, once the US led coalition became involved, over 350 coalition members lost their lives as well as 25,000 – 75,000 Iraqis (See appendix). Kerry was also critical of the administration's failure to use adequate forces at Tora Bora, possibly letting Osama Bin Laden slip away.

Kerry has been strong on intelligence and defense. The last time Kerry voted for a drop in intelligence spending was in 1994 and 1995 when he sided with senior congressional Republicans who wanted to cut 2% of the budget (roughly 1.5 billion…very trivial). The only times Kerry has voted for defense spending cuts came early in his career when he opposed the entire “star wars” missile defense system, and when a bi-partisan effort was formed to balance the budget. It should also be noted that “a vote against a particular weapons system doesn't necessarily indicate indifference toward national defense.”

Although strong on defense, Kerry is not a hawk. He has sponsored amendments to ban tests of anti-satellite weapons, as long as the Soviet Union also refrained from testing. In retrospect, trying to limit the vulnerability of satellites was imperative since many of our smart bombs are guided to their targets by signals from satellites. Kerry also voted for amendments to restrict the deployment of the MX missile and to ban the production of nerve-gas weapons.

Kerry’s defense record should not come as a surprise. As a rule it is the Democrats who theoretically support increases in governmental spending. In the 1992 State of the union address, George Bush Sr. said, “After completing 20 twenty planes for which we have begun procurement, we will shut down further production of the B-2 bomber. We will cancel the small ICBM program. We will cease production of new warheads for our sea-based ballistic missiles. We will stop all new production of the Peacekeeper [MX] missile. And we will not purchase any more advanced cruise missiles. … The reductions I have approved will save us an additional $50 billion over the next five years. By 1997 we will have cut defense by 30 percent since I took office.”

Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney also informed the Senate, “Overall, since I've been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion. That's the peace dividend. … And now we're adding to that another $50 billion … of so-called peace dividend.” It should also be remembered that Gen. Colin Powell testified about plans to cut Army divisions by one-third, Navy aircraft carriers by one-fifth, and active armed forces by half a million men and women. Each of these cases should not be met with contempt. In the 1980-90’s, the United States did not involve themselves in large-scale wars, decreasing the demand for military spending.

Another area in which Senator Kerry has been tough is crime. His career as a prosecuting attorney influenced his voting record. He voted for a bill in the 1990’s that authorized funding for an additional 100,000 police officers to be placed in our neighborhoods. He led the investigation of Oliver North who was connected to the Iran-Contra scandal. He also challenged the CIA's turning a blind eye to drug trafficking in Central America. In 1989 he released a report that slammed the current Administration for neglecting or undermining anti-drug efforts in order to pursue other foreign policy objectives. Much of the legislation Kerry endorsed dropped crime levels to the lowest in twenty years.

In the fall of 1992 Kerry released a report on the BCCI affair, a scandalous institution controlled by the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International had facilitated Noriega's drug trafficking and money laundering and Kerry had charged the effort to bring it down. Senator Hank Brown, the ranking Republican on Kerry's subcommittee, noted, "John Kerry was willing to spearhead this difficult investigation. Because many important members of his own party were involved in this scandal, it was a distasteful subject for other committee and subcommittee chairmen to investigate. They did not. John Kerry did."

Probably Kerry’s strongest voting record revolves around the environment. Kerry helped lead the fight against this administration’s attempt to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He has supported the Kyoto process on global warming. John Kerry has voted for the Natural Gas Pipeline as he believes it is important to build. However, Kerry’s environmental record places him in poor standing with the auto and oil industries. Wanting to raise the average mile per gallon of automobiles to 36 by 2015 will require higher research and development by manufacturers. Kerry has also supported various legislation regarding alternate fueled vehicles to cut America’s dependence on foreign oil.

One of John Kerry’s greatest strengths is his foreign policy ability. In a time when the United States has neglected our neighbors, His experience will bring instant credibility into the White House. He has spent time on the Senate Foreign relations committee and worked on the global AIDS projects. Kerry, coupled with John McCain, also embarked on the POW/MIA Affairs project. Their goal was to learn the truth about American soldiers missing in Vietnam and to normalize relations with that country. As the ranking Democrat on the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, he is a leading expert on that region, including North Korea. Kerry’s wealth of experience in this arena allows independence from advisors outlining his policies and actions for him. As a side note, Kerry’s multilingual and multicultural wife, Teresa, provides appeal to numerous nations.

John Kerry has dedicated his service in the Senate to his constituents. The fact that he was voted by the people of Massachusetts into the Senate four different times witness trust in their behalf. John Kerry entered the Senate with a reputation as a man of conviction. He helped provide health insurance for millions of low-income children. He has fought to improve public education, protect our natural environment, and strengthen our economy. Though his record may be challenged by his critics, it remains one of his greatest strengths.