Plan sets 10 goals

Gore's plan sets 10 economic goals:

Gore plans to reduce by half the pay gap between men and women over the next decade

-Make America debt-free by 2012. The plan of Gore's chief rival, Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, would leave the country $2.8 trillion in debt in 2012, the Gore campaign claims. The claim is strongly disupted by Bush aides.

-Protect Social Security and Medicare surpluses.

-Double the number of families with savings in excess of $50,000. At present, just one third of U.S. families have that much socked away, the campaign said.

-Cut income taxes of the typical American family to their lowest level in 50 years by 2002.

-Raise family incomes by a third over the next decade by paying down the debt, fueling growth in productivity, investing in training, technology and research; cutting taxes on the middle class, opening markets and supporting deregulation.

-Enable 7 in 10 families to own a home, a record, by 2004. Bush's plan would drive up interest rates, making home ownership more expensive, the Gore campaign claims.

-Lift college attendance and graduation rates to new records by making college tuition tax-deductible and giving tax credits and deductions for college saving, keeping interest rates on student loans down and expanding programs to help disadvantaged students get to and finish college. That would boost the college graduation rate to 50 percent by 2010, the Gore campaign said.

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Election 2000

-Reduce poverty to less than 10 percent, for the first time, by 2004 by raising the minimum wage and expanding tax credits for the working poor, continuing welfare reform, and strengthening Social Security for elderly women who live alone.

-Reduce the wage gap between men and women by 50 percent over the next decade by increasing enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, training women so that they can move into high-tech, high skill jobs, and providing loans and assistance to women who want to start small businesses.

-Create 10 million high-tech, high-wage jobs over the next decade by expanding education and training programs, opening international markets, and supporting private investment by reducing government debt.

Bush says his plan is better

Over the coming decade, the Bush plan would spend $1.1 trillion more than the projected surplus, the Gore campaign said. "It leaves America with $200 billion in annual deficits by 2010, and over $2.8 trillion in debt by 2012."

Bush campaign spokesman Dan Bartlett said Bush's "balanced budget provides needed investments in Medicare, Social Security, education, and defense, while providing tax relief for everyone paying income taxes.

The Bush campaign said six Nobel laureates and 294 economists would endorse Bush's plan, citing it as "better for working families and continued prosperity" in advertisements to appear in USA Today starting Wednesday.