Tempe, Ariz. ? President Bush and Sen. John Kerry attacked each other in their third and final debate Wednesday, accusing each other of misleading the country about their domestic records as they clawed for advantage heading into the final weeks of a campaign that polls show to be neck-and-neck.

Bush accused Kerry of making an “empty promise” to the American people on his plans for the economy and health care, arguing that Kerry couldn’t pay for all the new federal help.

Kerry countered that Bush’s domestic record has left the middle class squeezed by job losses, declining incomes and rising costs.

Each man was aggressive, well versed in numbers and details of domestic programs, and at times caustic.

Yet toward the end of their 90-minute confrontation, each man talked gently about his love for his wife and daughters. Asked what they had learned from being close to strong women, Bush said: “To listen to ’em. To stand up straight and not scowl. I love the strong women around me.”

Kerry said of his wife and daughters: “They kick me around … I can sometimes take myself too seriously. They surely don’t let me do that.” Kerry then paid tribute to Laura Bush and the two Bush daughters in a rare moment of civility.

Earlier, for example, Bush accused Kerry of listing a “litany of complaints” and lambasted Kerry for voting 98 times to support alleged tax increases in the Senate.

Kerry shot back that Bush was in no position to criticize after turning a projected federal budget surplus into record deficits.

“Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order,” Kerry said.

Sen. John Kerry takes part in their final presidential debate in Tempe, Ariz. Domestic issues dominated Wednesday's encounter. The general election is Nov. 2.

Yet neither scored a rhetorical knockout that might dramatically shift the dynamics of the close contest.

With less than three weeks left until Election Day, the debate offered voters one last chance to see the two major-party candidates side-by-side, live, without the filters of advertising or the news media.

Health and taxes

Bush defended his economic record, saying his tax cuts have helped working and middle class families.

“If you have a child, you got a $1,000 child credit,” Bush said. “If you’re married, we reduced the marriage penalty … We created a 10 percent bracket to help lower income Americans. A family of four making $40,000 received about $1,700 in tax relief. It’s your money.”

President Bush takes part in their final presidential debate in Tempe, Ariz. Domestic issues dominated Wednesday's encounter. The general election is Nov. 2.

Kerry countered with a detailed indictment of Bush’s tenure on the home front, saying soaring costs have eroded savings from tax cuts.

“Health care costs have gone up 64 percent,” Kerry said. “Tuitions have gone up 35 percent. Gasoline prices up 30 percent. Medicare premiums went up 17 percent a few days ago. Prescription drugs are up 12 percent …

“But guess what America — the wages of Americans have gone down, the jobs that are being created in Arizona right now paying about $13,700 less than the jobs we’re losing. And the president just walks on by this problem.”

Kerry accused Bush of presiding over a deteriorating health care system, noting that 5 million Americans have lost their insurance since Bush took office. “The president has turned his back on the wellness of America,” Kerry said.

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Bush charged that Kerry’s health care plan would cost $1.2 trillion, shift 8 million people from private to government insurance and amount to a government takeover. He said the plan would cost as much as $5 trillion over 10 years if Kerry succeeded at giving uninsured Americans a health care plan similar to one offered to members of Congress, as Kerry proposes. He charged that it would lead to rationing of services and “poor quality health.”

“I am not proposing a government-run program,” Kerry countered, saying his proposed expansion of health care would build on privately run health insurance and give Americans a choice of private plans such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Asked about rising health costs, Bush said patients should have more say in buying health care and lawyers should have less.

Giving patients tax-sheltered accounts to buy health care directly would create competition and drive costs down, Bush said. He also said lawsuits force doctors to practice needlessly expensive “defensive medicine” out of fear of lawsuits, costing the federal government $28 billion a year and the entire society up to $160 billion a year.

Kerry said Bush contributed to rising health care costs by blocking the right of Americans to get less expensive prescription drugs from Canada.

On Social Security, Bush repeated his proposal to allow younger workers divert part of their taxes into private investment accounts. “This will be a vital issue in my second term,” Bush said.

Kerry said that would take as much as $2 trillion out of the system that’s needed to pay benefits for today’s retirees. “That’s an invitation to disaster,” Kerry said. If events show Social Security needs repair, Kerry said, he would organize experts to plan what to do, but pledged: “I will not privatize it. I will not cut benefits.”

Asked about the shortage of flu vaccine, Bush asked young and healthy Americans to go without shots to allow more vulnerable people to get theirs.

“If you’re healthy, if you’re younger, don’t get a flu shot this year. Help us prioritize those who need to get the flu shot, the elderly and the young,” Bush said. “I haven’t gotten a flu shot and I don’t intend to.”

Jobs, social issues

Turning to the economy and jobs, Kerry said Bush is the first president in 72 years to preside over a net loss of jobs. He also said Bush is the only president to have family incomes decline for three years and exports decline. “I’m going to reverse that,” Kerry said.

He said he would better protect American workers from foreign competition.

Bush said the best answer to jobs lost to less expensive foreign labor was to educate and train American workers for new jobs. He said he had expanded help for job training and community college. “We want to help pay for you to gain the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century,” Bush said.

Asked about his church’s opposition to abortion, Kerry, an abortion-rights supporter, said he wouldn’t allow his Roman Catholic faith to influence public policy. “I believe that choice is a woman’s right, between a woman, God and her doctor,” Kerry said.

Bush, an opponent of abortion rights, said the country needs to adopt a culture of life but said he wouldn’t use an anti-abortion litmus test in appointing Supreme Court justices.

Asked whether they believe homosexuality is a choice, Bush said, “I don’t know,” but emphasized that America owes every person respect and dignity. At the same time, he said he believes marriage must be between a man and a woman, and said he was “deeply concerned” that some state courts are permitting homosexual marriage. That’s why he supports amending the U.S. Constitution, he said.

Kerry said he believed homosexuals are merely being who they are, and said he thought Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, who’s openly gay, would say so if she were asked. He, too, said he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman, but he said state courts are able to enforce marriage laws without amending the Constitution, and that every couple should be entitled to “partnership rights.”