BOSTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry is back in Boston Thursday, giving a campaign speech to the 3,500-member International Association of Fire Fighters convention where he's expected to promote his plans to counter high health care costs.

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Gail Huff Reports On Campaigns Survey:Kerry's War Record Important? Discuss: War Record A Factor For You?

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that the Kerry campaign claims expensive health care is a key factor behind the weak job market. Kerry's camp is claiming the Bush administration isn't doing enough to reduce health costs. The Bush camp says its plan to reduce health costs, which are rising at a rate of $60 billion to $100 billion a year, involves caps on medical malpractice claims, but it says Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, are among the legislators standing in the way of the plan.

Meantime, President George W. Bush was in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, also campaigning and talking about his plans to bring some 70,000 U.S. troops home from bases in Europe and Asia. He talked about the need to strengthen homeland security.

"There's more to do to make America a safer place, a stronger place and a better place for every single citizen," Bush said.

But Kerry, speaking to a veteran's group in Ohio, was critical of Bush's plan to reorganize American defense strategy, reducing forces in South Korea.

"At the very time that we are negotiating with North Korea, a country that really has nuclear weapons," Kerry said.

Homeland Security and military experience continue to be key issues in the campaign. A controversial ad produced by Swift Boat Veterans Against Kerry, which attacks Kerry's war record, is drawing attention, as is a Washington Post article about the group's leader, former swift boat commander Larry Thurlow.

Thurlow also won a Bronze Star for the same Mekong Delta action in which Kerry won a Bronze Star. Both were credited with helping rescue members of a third swift boat which had been hit in a mine explosion, all while under enemy fire. Thurlow, however, has since claimed that there was no enemy fire and the story of bullets flying while Kerry pulled another man from the water, he has said, were "fabricated."

"I never heard a shot," Thurlow has said. "We weren't under fire."

A registered Republican, Thurlow was angered by Kerry's anti-war activities after returning from Vietnam, especially Kerry's claims at the time that U.S. troops committed war atrocities with the knowlege of their superior officers.

Kerry will travel to Derry, N.H., following his Boston speech for a "front-porch" visit at a home there. Bush is taking a pre-convention break at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Discuss: War Record A Factor For You?