“We would love to have middle-class tax cuts, but they have to be paid for in some way,” Dean said. “We’re going to have a big economic speech in the middle of September. Maybe there will be some tax reductions, but they will have to be paid for in some way.’’
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Dean critical of U.S. oil policy
By KEVIN LANDRIGAN Telegraph Staff
landrigank@telegraph-nh.com
Photo by The Associated Press
Democratic presidential hopeful former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean addresses supporters at a Nashua home on Saturday.
NASHUA – Democratic candidate Howard Dean said President Bush wants critical pages inside a congressional report on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks kept secret because they reveal the extent of how the country’s energy policy continues to make Americans unsafe.
“He is covering his unwillingness to stand up and defend America,’’ Dean said outside the south Nashua home of Peter and Gloria Henry. “Defending America is not just about having a strong military, it’s also about having a strong oil policy. He does not have one. It’s hurt this country terribly.”
Meanwhile, Dean struck back at a primary rival, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who warned on Friday that Dean’s opposition to the war in Iraq and his push for complete repeal of the Bush tax cuts could be a “ticket to nowhere’’ for Democrats on Election Day 2004.
“I disagree with Joe,” Dean said. “He’s served this country well, but he’s been on the wrong side of a lot of issues and I simply disagree with his assessment. I think my policies are a ticket to the White House.’’
During a brief interview, Dean refused to rule out that some tax cuts would be part of an economic plan the candidate will present next month.
“We would love to have middle-class tax cuts, but they have to be paid for in some way,” Dean said. “We’re going to have a big economic speech in the middle of September. Maybe there will be some tax reductions, but they will have to be paid for in some way.’’
Primary opponent John Kerry charged on Wednesday that Dean would raise taxes on the middle class by repealing Bush tax cuts that include breaks for working families.
Dean said Kerry’s endorsed tax breaks and a wish list of spending already exceed the annual cost of Bush’s tax cut plans.
“The problem with John’s position on taxes is he’s promising everything,” Dean said. “He’s a little like President Bush in that way.’’
The New York Times reported readers of the Sept. 11 report confide that two Saudi citizens who had indirect links with two hijackers were probably Saudi intelligence agents.
“This president will never be strong on defense unless he’s willing to come to grips with our enormous appetite for foreign oil and unless he’s willing to stand up to the Saudis and confront them,” Dean said. “So far it feels like he’s covering for them.’’
Thanks to a lengthy question-and-answer session at an American Legion Hall forum in Salem, Dean arrived an hour late for the Nashua house party.
An overflow crowd of more than 300 didn’t mind waiting underneath a white tent in the Henrys’ deeply wooded back yard as they munched on slices of cantaloupe and watermelon and a generous snack spread that even caught Dean’s eye.
“Wow, Krispy Kremes,’’ Dean said, spotting the doughnut tray upon his arrival.
Henry, a self-described “C-SPAN junkie,’’ said Dean stood out as a serious figure in the party while running meetings of the National Governors Association in the mid-1990s.
“When I heard he was a candidate for president, it was a no-brainer,’’ Henry said.
While U.S. unemployment improved in June, Dean said it’s still at a nine-year high and ignores the underemployed, which he pegged at 6 percent.
“These are people who had $50,000 good jobs and now they are making $25,000 or $30,000, and they have two of them, in some cases,” Dean said. “I am tired of having an economy where our best jobs are shifted elsewhere in the world.’’
Dean fans made up a thick portion of the crowd, often turning Dean’s 25-minute stump speech into a rally of revival proportions with interrupted calls of “amen’’ and “yes, yes.’’
Todd Hapham, a 49-year-old systems analyst from Manchester, dismisses questions about whether Dean – an anti-Iraq war candidate hailing from a small state – can beat Bush.
“People equate him being against the war with being liberal. They don’t know his record,’’ said Hapham, who does volunteer work for the campaign.
“I think there are more positives than negatives with him. He doesn’t have the baggage these others have who have been in Washington for so long.’’
Dean hasn’t won over Gerry Scoppettuolo of Manchester yet.
An anti-AIDS activist, Scoppettuolo faults Dean for failing to call for a lifting of sanctions against Iraq prior to the war.
Some international aid groups concluded the sanctions led to as many as a million Iraqi children to die prematurely because of hunger and malnutrition.
“I’ve got several issues with his foreign affairs policies,” Scoppettuolo said. “To me, this one was a sin, all these dead people.’’
Link: nashuatelegraph.com
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I guess we'll have to wait 'til the middle of September to see specifics.
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