Gephardt Blasts Bush on Homeland Security

Democratic presidential candidate Richard A. Gephardt, faulting President Bush for “gambling with our safety,” on Monday called for spending $100 billion over five years on homeland security.

Battling the front-runner and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for a critical victory in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, the Missouri congressman proposed the creation of a Homeland Security Trust Fund to assist state and local communities. The plan would be financed by eliminating special-interest tax breaks.

“A guiding principle of homeland security is that it should look both inward and outward. A foreign policy that drives away natural allies in the war against terrorism does our country no good. And shortchanging domestic security puts our citizens here at home at undue risk,” Gephardt said. “Homeland security involves balance and common sense. Unfortunately, those are two qualities we rarely see in this White House.”

Speaking at police headquarters in this eastern Iowa city, Gephardt said he would spend $20 billion per year over the next five years.

A special commission, modeled after the independent military base-closing commission, would sort through the federal tax code and identify unneeded subsidies.

“When you measure progress on the threats that could inflict the greatest number of casualties, it’s clear this president is gambling with our safety,” Gephardt said.

Meanwhile, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts said Monday he will end the “era of John Ashcroft” if elected president, stepping up efforts to protect civil liberties while strengthening the war on terrorism.

“In my first 100 days, I will restore our commitment to civil rights and individual rights,” Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, said in remarks at Iowa State University.

He said that would begin with the appointment of “an attorney general who knows he can fight the war on terrorism without attacking America’s freedoms.... an attorney general whose name is not John Ashcroft.”

Kerry said he would call for an end to the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens and provide the detainees their basic civil rights.

He also said he would strengthen terrorism laws, such as those that call for local law enforcement to share information, and would ensure that anti-terror laws are used to combat terrorism rather than ordinary criminal cases.