Dean is Thinking Outside the Box
by Becky Burgwin
(Howard Dean has outlined some original and far-reaching plans that show him to be an innovator in areas in which our country needs the most help; energy, healthcare, childcare, education and national defense.)
As we all know, Howard Dean has broken all kinds of records for candidates running for office. He has raised the most money in the shortest period of time. He has made unprecedented use of the Internet affording him the widest base of grass roots supporters than any candidate in history. What some people, especially journalists, it seems, don't seem to know is that he has incredibly bold and innovative ideas in every plank of his platform.
FOREIGN POLICY: Howard Dean has lived overseas and has spent a considerable amount of time in Asia, the Middle East, The Far East, Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. In Dean's travels as Governor he met many world leaders. According to Gov. Dean one of the important elements to our national defense would be to stabilize many of the most seriously volatile countries"to help them fight poverty and disease. The U.S. currently spends less on this important task than any other country in the world. Dean believes that when nations are experiencing epidemics and famine, they destabilize and become a hot bed for extremist groups. Therefore, helping-disease stricken impoverished nations will not only help the world it will become an important tool in his war against terrorism
THE MILITARY: It's obvious that we need to strengthen and grow our military so that we are not using divisions that were created for our national security in global skirmishes for which they are not trained. To accomplish this Dean will increase military salaries and benefits, making it more attractive for young people to join. Also, he will stop funding WMDs that are still in the testing phase and put that money into weapons and equipment we already have. Currently, in Iraq, our kids are wearing Viet Nam-era flak jackets.
WMD's: He would expand the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program which, currently, has a paltry budget of only 2 billion dollars. Keeping biological and nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists should be a very high priority. In his speech to The Pacific Council for International Policy on Dec. 15, 2003, he stated that he would see to it that they would be given, "30 billion dollars from the U.S. and 30 billion dollars from our allies," towards their incredibly important work.
ALLIES: Dean repeats that the Berlin wall fell without a shot being fired. He feels that one of the reasons for this is that citizens of the Soviet Union and East Berlin wanted to be like Americans. "You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who wants to be like America today," he says when assuring the voters that the major effort of his early presidency will be restoring our standing in the world and turning America back into a country to be emulated, not hated and feared. Then our allies will join with us in the fight against global terrorism, which is what should have happened after 9/11.
EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION: Another example of Dr. Dean's innovative thinking is the program he implemented in Vermont called, "Success by Six." It builds upon his theory that teachers can tell by first or second grade which student is going to college and which is going to jail. They offer every new mother, not just single moms, a chance to have a home visit. 91% say yes. They are offered parenting classes, job training, childcare, healthcare and programs to keep fathers involved at no cost to the family. After 10 years they have seen a 43% decrease in child abuse and a whopping 70% decrease in cases of incest. To find out if this program works in tougher neighborhoods, they implemented a pilot program in East Los Angeles and it is just as successful.
EDUCATION: When a Vermont high school requested money for state of the art equipment for their vocational department, the governor gave it to them but with some conditions. The department was to be housed in a building next to the high school and they were to conduct themselves as a community college. In other words people of all ages could go there. The seniors who have spare time in their final year could take classes there and earn college credits. By doing this they also get to work side-by-side with adults who seriously need to learn a new skill to support their families, therefore showing the younger ones how important it is to get a good education. It's genius!
COLLEGE: Dean thinks it's important to make broadband internet access available to people in the most rural parts of our country, thus enabling them to take all kinds of college courses"Russian, advanced engineering, business law or African poetry, and they can take courses from universities all over the country.
Dean believes that kids who have just graduated from high school don't have goals beyond getting away from home. He wants to restore funding to Americorps and other programs that benefit impoverished areas in our country. After high school, kids could work for 2 years, experiencing life and earning money for college. Then at age 20, when they're more likely to know what they want to do, they start college. It's a win-win.
COLLEGE TUITION: Because many middle class parents know they can't afford college, they give up by the time the kids are in 8th grade. Therefore, children don't aspire to do anything beyond high school. Dean would enact a program in which a middle income families would never have to repay more than 10% of its income in student loans and never for more than 10 years. For those who want to go into public service, nursing, law enforcement, or teaching, for example, their tuition will never be more than 7% a year.
HEALTHCARE: Everyone knows that universal healthcare is one of the cornerstones of Dr. Dean's campaign. According to Cici Connolly of The Washington Post, census bureau statistics show Vermont to be the best state for insuring children. Doctors who have private practices know how health insurance should work.
Dean doesn't believe we should immediately begin a total overhaul of the system. Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and Bill & Hillary Clinton all tried and failed. People need insurance now. In Vermont after trying and failing to develop a single payer system, he went with a Medicaid-like state funded program. It covers all citizens under the age of 33 who are not already insured. All people over 65 get covered by Medicare and get prescription benefits. The folks in between, aged 34-65, if not covered at work, can buy into the same program that the U.S. Congress uses and it will never cost more than 7 1/2 % of their adjusted gross income. He knows it's not the perfect solution, but it covers almost everyone right away and leaves time for the total overhaul. And the cost...87 billion dollars to insure everyone in the country. Familiar number?? It should be. We just spent this on Iraq.
GUNS: Ah, the ever-nasty gun issue"Dean will keep all of the existing federal laws: The Brady Bill, assault weapon ban, and closing the gun show loophole. From there he'll leave it to the states to decide because each state has different issues. Vermont is different than New York. California is different than Iowa. Even the NRA liked this one.
TRADE: According to Gov. Dean, when we implemented our open trade policy we only followed it half way. We need to insist that the countries that we send our manufacturing business to have the same labor standards that we have: the ability to organize and demand fair pay and good working conditions. Also these businesses must adhere to strict environmental regulations. Dean admits, "The bad news is it might make prices at Walmart higher but fewer companies will take their businesses offshore." Best of all, because the workers, primarily women, will have better pay and working conditions, the country will be better off. In North Conway, NH on Dec. 18th he said, "It has been shown over and over that when you empower women fully in a society, you will have a stable democracy because stable democracies always work better when women have full and equal rights." He got my vote right there.
JOBS: According to Dean we must give the tax breaks to the middle class. What makes us the greatest country in the world is that we have the largest middle class. It's the middle class that keeps the economy running, not the uber-rich. Also, we must give the tax breaks to small businesses, not huge corporations, and also help them insure their employees. As happy and healthy employees become better workers, the business becomes more successful, more workers are hired and new jobs are created. 70% of all new jobs come from small businesses and they don't move their companies offshore.
ENERGY: Improving our energy infrastructure will create jobs. Dean will insist that all SUVs adhere to strict mileage guidelines. He says, if we do this, we won't need the oil from the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. If we put 10% ethanol in every gas tank, we'll use 2% less oil. All of these regulations and the search for more ways to create renewable energy will create jobs and make us less dependant on foreign oil. Which, my children, brings us full circle because if we are less dependant on foreign oil, we will be giving less money to countries that are raising their kids to hate America and become suicide bombers.
Every one of these amazingly innovative ideas could have easily been funded before the Bush tax cuts and the hemorrhaging of money into Iraq. Much work will need to be done to repair the damage caused by these unbelievably destructive blunders, but all of these ideas are brilliant and doable.
Every time I see one of Dean's speeches, I see someone in the audience who's crying or holding their hand to their mouths as though they had just won a million dollars. This is because they are suddenly realizing that this man is the real deal. In his speech on December 18th in North Conway, NH, his rhetoric could be compared to that of JFK when he says, "This election isn't about me or George Bush or any of these candidates. It's about you. And I want to know, are you going to do something about this or are you just going to complain? If one person is left behind in this great country of ours, then the United States of America isn't as strong as it can be. That's the kind of country I want back." Howard Dean is righteous, he's a patriot and he's going to be our next president.
