www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-04-12-kerry_x.htm
Kerry turns to misery index, young voters on new swing BOSTON AP Democrat John Kerry is opening a concerted appeal to younger voters, using new figures his presidential campaign has gathered to show the soaring costs of a college education amid lagging incomes. Kerrys first destination Monday was the University of New Hampshire, with stops later in the week at the University of Rhode Island, the City College of New York and the University of Pittsburgh. The Massachusetts senator is releasing a misery index suggesting that working families have been hammered by stagnant incomes at a time college and health insurance costs have soared. In his college swing, Kerry is expected to focus on the college cost issue, even while his campaign is broadening its economic criticism of Bush. The study by his campaign said tuition costs at public colleges and universities have soared by 13 in the last three years, the largest increase on record and reflecting the budget pressures facing cash-strapped states. Private-college costs have grown by 5 over the same stretch, it said. Much of the Democrats criticism of President Bush is focused on job losses during his tenure, but Kerrys study argued that far broader and more ominous economic trends are at work. Less noted, but perhaps even more important, it said, is the fact that middle-class families are increasingly being squeezed by the rising cost of health care, college tuition and gasoline at the same time that wages and incomes are stagnating and personal bankruptcies are at record levels. Kerrys campaign planned to formally release the report Monday at coordinated events in more than a dozen electorally competitive states. Between 2000 and 2003, the study says, inflation-adjusted figures show wages dropped 02 while public-college tuition jumped 13, health insurance premiums grew 11 and gasoline prices rose 15. Kerrys campaign argues that those increased burdens far outstripped any financial gain from a series of Bush-sponsored tax cuts, which the administration contends put more money in the pockets of working families. This is an index about how the real economy is affecting real working families, said Gene B. Sperling, a Kerry adviser who was a top economic aide to President Clinton. Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt dismissed the index as a political stunt. John Kerry has made a calculation that if he talks down the economy, it will benefit him politically, he said. Schmidt also said the economy is growing at its fastest rate in 20 years, and pointed to a Labor Department report that some 308,000 new jobs were created last month. Campaign officials said they prepared the study with economic data from the Census Bureau, the College Board, the federal agency that runs the Medicaid and Medicare health programs and other government agencies, independent sources and advocacy groups. The report examined median family incomes, college tuition, health insurance costs, gasoline prices, personal bankruptcies, home ownership rates and private-sector job growth.
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