The two most important determinants of America’s future are its international perception and economic strength, 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told an enthusiastic audience of 500 at the JFK Library yesterday.
‘I am deeply worried about the course we are on now,’ Dean said, arguing that the United States has squandered the goodwill that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Dean also called on Americans to recognize their shared burdens.
‘I want a country again where we admit that we’re responsible to each other and we need each other,’ he said.
Dean, former governor of Vermont, laid out his positions on both foreign and domestic issues. He emphasized the need for America to restore its relationship with allies and the United Nations and develop more humane trade policies. On the domestic front, he proposed a plan for universal health care and stimulating the economy by growing small businesses.
During his 15-minute speech and the interview with author and Time Magazine political columnist Joe Klein that followed, Dean was frequently interrupted by applause from the audience, which spilled out into the aisles. Attendees were greeted in the parking lot by a small group of apparently independent organizers chanting ‘Beantown is Deantown.’
Dean, who joked that he represents ‘the democratic wing of the Democratic Party,’ began by saying that while he is opposed to the war in Iraq, he supports American troops.
He declined to answer questions about what strategy he would pursue in the war on Iraq, saying he did not have the intelligence information to properly answer.
‘If it were up to me we wouldn’t be there now,’ he said.
America needs to rebuild the ties to allies that have been damaged by the Bush administration’s brash foreign policy, Dean said. Furthermore, he said, the United States should speak out against fundamentalist Islam and reduce its dependence on foreign oil.
‘It is in our best interests, both from a defense point of view and a human rights point of view, to promote democracy in the Arab world,’ he said.
Dean also said while he was not convinced Iraq was an imminent threat,
North Korea is, and the United States should ‘constructively engage’ it to avoid a conflict with the potentially nuclear state.
Under questioning from Klein, Dean said that while he supported the North
American Free Trade Agreement in the early ’90s, it was now time for the United States to hold its trade partners to higher environmental and labor standards.
‘I want to include human rights with trade as Jimmy Carter included human rights with foreign policy,’ he said.
He said that by raising wages and labor standards abroad, less developed nations would be strengthened by middle classes, just as the trade union movement helped America develop a middle class.
Laying out his domestic policy, Dean decried the Bush administration for increasing the deficit while giving tax cuts to the wealthy.
He chided the Senate for passing a plan yesterday for $350 billion in tax cuts over 10 years.
Instead of cutting taxes, Dean suggested the government invest the money in a
New Deal-style improvement program.
‘Create jobs now and in 70 years from now have something to show for our $1.7 trillion,’ he said.
Dean also said small businesses were an important part of the economy and the government should offer them tax credits to provide their employees with health insurance.
‘I want to include everybody in the health care system,’ he said, citing Vermont as a model. By expanding medicare, Medicaid and employer-based health care to make everybody eligible, he said, 96 percent of Vermonters have health insurance.
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