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Candidates focus on flagging job market By PETE YOST THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Bush and rival John Kerry on Tuesday offered different ways to boost the sluggish job market, the president calling for legal reforms to help workers and businesses while his Democratic opponent proposed ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas. Kerry, moving aggressively in the face of polls showing his candidacy lagging, used the latest forecast of a record budget deficit to bolster his contention that Bush is leading the country in the wrong direction. The Bush administration described the lower deficit prediction as positive economic news. In his second day of campaigning in Missouri, a state he won in 2000 by just 79,000 votes out of 2.3 million cast, Bush told a rally in suburban Kansas City that Kerry had stood in the way of legal reforms that would help generate jobs and protect workers and businesses. He called Kerry “one of the trial lawyers’ most reliable allies in the Senate.” Bush, linking Kerry policies to campaign donations from trial attorneys, said “junk lawsuits” hinder job creation and cost the economy more than $230 billion a year. With the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicting this year’s federal deficit will reach $422 billion Kerry told supporters in North Carolina that the deficit represented other bad Bush choices. “Only George W. Bush could celebrate over a record budget deficit of $422 billion, a loss of 1.6 million jobs and Medicare premiums that are up by a record 17 percent,” Kerry said. “W stands for wrong — the wrong direction for America.” Kerry said he would end j¥t tax breaks tor companies that outsource overseas, a potent issue in North - : Carolina and [ other states that have suffered job losses. “Because of George Bush’s wrong choices, this country is continuing to ship good jobs overseas, jobs with good wages and good benefits,” Kerry said. Kerry’s criticism on the economic front came a day after he leveled harsh criticism at Bush over the war in Iraq, declaring that the president had sent U.S. troops to the “wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Bush dismissed Kerry’s remarks on the war as yet another switch in position by a • senator who originally voted to give the president the authority to act in Iraq. “No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America then and it’s right for America now if Saddam Hussein is no longer in power,” the president told supporters Monday in Poplar Bluff, Mo. Kerry’s plan to deal with the problem of outsourcing jobs would eliminate rules allowing companies to defer paying taxes on income earned , by their foreign subsidiaries until they bring the profits back THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Bush, left, and Sen. John Kerry are attempting to reach voters with their differing visions of the U.S. economy. Bush proposed legal reform and Kerry called for ending tax breaks for companies who send jobs overseas. to the United States. Kerry says the elimination would ensure that American companies will be taxed on their foreign subsidiaries’ profits just like they are taxed on their domestic profits. “He’s actually encouraging the export of American jobs,” Kerry said of Bush’s support for the current rules. The president’s plan for dealing with job losses is through job training, increased funding for community colleges and creation of “opportunity zones” of reduced taxes. Bush said the jobs picture is improving, largely due to tax cuts that he said have helped push down the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent. The economy “is strong and is getting stronger,” Bush told a Labor Day crowd in Poplar Bluff. Political analysts point to one potential problem for Kerry in Missouri — lingering bitterness in the Democratic Party’s ranks over a primary election that ousted incumbent Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. Kerry needs a huge turnout of loyal Democrats to win the state in November. Missouri Democrats see their ticket as generating a lot of enthusiasm among voters, with women running for governor, U.S. Senate .and secretary of state. The Kerry campaign sees Bush’s frequent trips tcrMissouri as an indication the campaign sees trouble ahead. www.dailygamecock.com Now five days a week. ___ * I 1