Signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which lowered the top tax bracket by 4.6% and the next three brackets by 3% each, resulting in the top 1% of income earners receiving 80% of the tax break, widening the gap between rich and poor.

 Pushed through a series of tax cuts, including the bonus depreciation tax cut, the phase-out of the federal estate tax, elimination of the capital gains tax, tax breaks for corporations and many others. Almost none of these cuts have been paid for by corresponding reductions in federal spending and the administration has opposed efforts to limit tax cuts with "pay-as-you-go" controls.

Note: Numerous analyses have shown that these tax cuts and many others have gone primarily to the top one percent of households (whose incomes average nearly $1.2 million annually) which received an average tax cut of $40,990 in 2004—40 times the average tax break for those in the middle fifth of the income distribution. The lowest 20 percent of income earners received only $230, on average.

 Turned a $5.6 trillion surplus into a deficit. The estimated deficit for the current fiscal year is about $422 billion. By 2010, the total federal deficit due is projected to be $5.5 trillion! The resulting decline in federal revenues has already meant that serious funding reductions are being made in a wide array of social programs—harming many women and children.

 Squandered the surplus as well as the revenue needed to strengthen Social Security for the long term. This problem compounds with the increasing life expectancy and the shrinking ratio between workers and retirees. Under current law, Social Security will lose its ability to pay 100% of promised benefits by the year 2042.

 Eliminated the Equal Pay Matters Initiative, a Department of Labor (DOL) program to improve enforcement of laws on ending sex and race pay discrimination, reduce occupational sex segregation and promote pension equity and then removed all information materials from the agency's web site. The gender wage gap is not closing, but widening, due to a drop in women's earnings. The ratio of female-to-male earnings for full-time, year-round workers was 76 cents for every dollar in 2003, down from 77 cents in 2002.

 Bush's DOL adopted new regulations (despite attempts in Congress to block them) that would deny about 3.7 million women overtime pay—an important source of income for low- and middle-income workers.

 The Bush DOL removed women's employment fact sheets such as "Women's Earnings as Percent of Men's 1979-1997" from government web sites, replacing them with pieces such as "Hot Jobs for the 21st Century.

 The Bush DOL failed to investigate reported violations of equal pay laws, hampering appropriate enforcement actions.

 Bush's Department of Justice dropped cases challenging sex discrimination in employment and weakened laws against job discrimination.

 Bush's Equal Employment Opportunities Commission issued new guidelines that will make it harder to identify whether race and sex discrimination is being practiced in federal agencies. The term "under-represented" which identifies women and minorities (federal agencies are still predominantly white and male), will no longer be used and the collection of statistics about workforce demographics is discouraged.

 The Bush DOL withdrew a Clinton administration regulation to allow for employee paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, under state Unemployment Compensation programs.

 The Bush budget proposed cuts to the Childcare and Development Block Grant—a program which helps low-income families pay for child care. The program also provides funds to improve the quality of child care. The proposed cuts would remove up to 300,000 children from the program by 2009.

 The proposed 2005 Bush budget fails to renew the Modest Savers Credit, a tax credit to low- and moderate-income individuals and families who contribute to a retirement account.

 Bush proposed replacing various types of employment-based retirement plans with "Employer Retirement Savings Accounts." Current non-discrimination rules which require that a portion of a company's retirement contributions should be for low and moderate-income workers would be weakened. In effect, protections for low-income workers would be severely weakened.

 The Bush administration's proposed welfare policy would require poor women to work 40 hours a week, while providing dramatically inadequate funds for child care during the extra work hours and continuing to restrict poor women's access to education and vocational training.

 Bush diverted $2 billion of welfare funding to marriage promotion programs, supposedly as a cure to poverty. This risks women's safety—at least a third of welfare recipients are or have been domestic abuse victims.

 Bush promoted economic policies which have failed to raise family incomes. More than one in four working families earn wages so low that they have difficulty surviving financially. One in five jobs in the U.S. are in an occupation that pays less than a poverty-level wage for a family of four.

 Bush opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, which allows workers to join a union free from employer intimidation, harassment and threats. In fact, since taking office, Bush has taken away the collective bargaining rights of nearly a quarter million government workers.

John Kerry:

 Voted to enhance the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to better enforce legislation prohibiting wage discrimination on the basis of gender.

 Supported 1998 Higher Education Act Amendments to allow states to accept education for work requirements to receive welfare, allowing poor parents to acquire training while on welfare.

 Voted against the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which resulted in the top 1% of income earners receiving 80% of the tax break.

 As ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, led Congressional efforts to maintain and improve the Women's Business Center Program—which provides five-year grants of up to $150,000 a year to private-sector organizations to establish small business training centers for women.

 Co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act, which would ensure that when a majority of employees in a workplace decides to form a union, they can do so free from employer intimidation, harassment and other obstacles used to block their efforts.

Ralph Nader:

 As a lifelong consumer advocate, Nader has lobbied for tax and insurance reforms that benefit the people, while fighting against "corporate welfare." The organizations he helped found have empowered people to demand consumer protections.

 According to the AFL-CIO, he engaged in anti-union practices such as firing organizers and filing intimidation suits against his employees at Multinational Monitor and Public Citizen, stating: "I don't think there is a role for unions in small nonprofit 'cause' organizations any more than ... within a monastery or within a union."