Howard Dean on C-SPAN (partial transcript)

Howard Dean was on C-SPAN the other night, addressing the Iron Workers International 41st Annual Convention . We recorded most of it, except for what was lost due to technical difficulties on our end. Here is the first half of Howard's talk.
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Now, I've got a number of things to say, but I want to start off with a topic in the news, and that is the defense of America. We have seen in the last week or so, the Republicans going back to their same old playbook: "You can't trust Democrats to defend America." This time, that's not going to work, because the truth is, you can *only* trust Democrats to defend America.

If you look at the president's defense record, here is his record over the past 5 1/2 years. Iran is about to get nuclear weapons, which is a terrorist government, North Korea has four times more nuclear weapons than it did when George Bush took office, Osama Bin Laden is still running around in northwest Pakistan, evidently able to convince people they ought to blow up American airplanes. And we are bogged down spending half a trillion dollars in Iraq, which *could* be used to do the things the Democratic party has and the 9/11 Commission recommended, which is to make our airports and our nuclear power plants, and our train stations safe here at home.

Just this past weekend, the chairman of the 9/11 Commision said essentially that the number one job of the President of the United States and the American government is to keep Americans safe here at home, and if that isn't happening, the president's not doing his job. And I submit to you the president is not doing his job. And we need a new direction to defend America (applause).

First, we need to invest in Homeland Security. And Homeland Security means adequate screening at airports, but it also means taking care of our nuclear power plants, it means taking care of our chemical factories and our petroleum factories. It means making sure our train stations are safe, and it means putting real money, as the Democrats proposed and the Republicans said no to, putting real money into intelligence *inside* the borders of the United States of America, so *we* don't end up having what Britain had this past week.

Secondly, real defense of America means investing in America. Half a trillion dollars going into Iraq--what could that do for our healthcare system and our education system? What could that do to make sure that American jobs stay in America? That is part of homeland security, making sure American jobs stay in America. (applause)

One of the things I care deeply about defense, is how to treat our troops properly. The truth is, this president goes and has photo-ops with our troops, flies to Baghdad, had Thanksgiving dinner with the troops, but those guys got sent over there without proper vests. Those guys got sent over there without adequate equipment. If we're going to send troops to defend America, the Democrats believe that they ought to be fully, and adequately equipped--do not skimp on the people that are defending and willing to sacrifice their lives for the United States of America. (Applause, whistles, cheers)

So, here we have the results of the president's foreign and defense policy. Iraq is now sliding into civil war, according to the testimony of the leading general there. Iran and North Korea are more dangerous today than they were 5 1/2 years ago. The Taliban is coming back in Afganistan, partly because we don't have enough troops there, partly because they're in Iraq. And after 5 years, Osama Bin Laden is still free.

We need to do better than that. We need to focus on capturing and killing Osama Bin Laden and the other Al Qaida that are at large. We need to understand the difference between a war of convenience and a war against a person we don't like, Saddam Hussein, and a war for survival, which is making sure that Iran does not get nuclear weapons, and making sure North Korea does not possess them any more.

I hear a lot of tough talk, but the primary difference between the Democrats and the Republicans are, we'll be tough, but we'll be tough *and* smart, because that's what it requires to defend the United States of America. (Applause)

Now, we've talked a little bit about the war in Iraq, and we've talked a little bit about the war on terror, and the two, I might add, are not related. But we have not talked yet about another war that this administration is pursuing, the one that we don't spend enough time talking about. And that is the war on the American middle class.

I was in North Dakota this past week. North Dakota has got three great members of the Senate and the House--all Democrats. If Kent Conrad were chairing the Budget Committee right now, we would not have the largest deficit in the history of the United States of America, because the truth is, you can't trust Republicans with your money, but you can trust Kent Conrad, who's a Democrat, to manage the budget properly. The only president of the United States who ran a surplus was William Jefferson Clinton, and last time I looked, he was a Democrat.

Missed a bit here due to trouble with our television speakers.

I know most people in this room have pretty good healthcare, but I also know that you're under a lot of pressure for give-backs. And there are a lot of people in industries, even unionized industries, that don't have such good healthcare. And the truth is, your healthcare's pretty expensive, and that's one of the reasons there's pressure on it. And why is that? Because every year that President Bush is in office, at least a million more people go without healthcare, and you are paying that bill through cost-shifting. The fact is, we need what 36 other countries in the world have. We need a system of health insurance that covers everybody. (Applause)

And this isn't some progressive idear or some liberal idear or some Democratic idear. You know why we're going to have one? No matter how long the Republicans stay in office, in spite of them, and everything they do to try to kill healthcare for middle class people. You know why it's going to happen? Because we are going to lose *jobs* without it. When General Motors and Ford can't expand in this country, because the healthcare system doesn't work for them and they can't control the costs, that is time to go to a healthcare system that includes everybody.

Tried to do that three times. The Republicans have tried to undo what we've done three times, and this time we're going to succeed. First, with a Democratic Congress in 2006, and with a Democratic President of the United States in 2008. (Applause and cheers).

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