08:01 PM PDT on Thursday, October 21, 2004

By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff

John Kerry said he would leave Oregon’s controversial medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws alone and blasted President George Bush for deepening budget deficits.

KGW

John Kerry speaks to Northwest NewsChannel 8 on Thursday.

The Democratic presidential candidate took a short break from the campaign trail to speak with KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8 on Thursday. Kerry’s message was heavy on states’ rights themes and domestic issues such as education and health care.

KGW has asked President Bush for a similar one-on-one interview, but his campaign has said it is unable to meet the request.

The federal government shouldn’t interfere with medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws crafted and approved by Oregonians, Kerry said. These laws have come under legal challenge by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"Individual states have the right to make a decision until the federal government has made an alternative one, and we don’t have the information to make that, period,” Kerry said.

Kerry said the federal government must fully fund No Child Left Behind, a landmark education bill proposed by Bush and later passed by Congress. No Child Left Behind requires students to pass a series of tests that demonstrate their knowledge of various subjects. Funding from the federal government for these schools is also tied to students’ performance on these tests.

The Democratic presidential candidate charged that the Bush administration has “underfunded” No Child Left Behind by $28 million. Under his watch, Kerry said he would earmark the full amount needed to make No Child Left Behind work and would allocate money to special needs education.

But Kerry also made some vague pledges about supporting local education.

Saying that states’ reliance on the property tax to fund schools has in effect created “a separate and unequal school system in America,” Kerry said the federal government has a responsibility to try to help communities that “just don’t have the tax base” to fund education.

“We’re going to relieve some of the pressure from the property tax on a lot of communities around the country, and we’re going to respect education and educators, which this administration has not,” Kerry said.

The underfunded education system in America is the fault of the Bush administration, which has run up a budget deficit, Kerry said. The Bush campaign has charged that Kerry cannot pay for the programs he’s proposed.

Kerry shot back on Thursday, saying “President Bush is the last person in America who should be talking about fiscal responsibility.”

“He’s taken a $5.6 trillion surplus, and turned it into an almost $3 trillion deficit. I will restore ‘pay as you go’ and fiscal responsibility. Every program I’ve offered, I’ve shown how I would pay for it, including my tax cut for the middle class.”

Kerry also charged that Bush would privative social security and has made prescription drugs more expensive for Americans. The presidential candidate said he would allow cheaper drugs from Canada to be sold in the U.S.