Reply #125: Dean is a hustler who will say anything to anyone to get support

[Nicholas_J]

A few years back at a Cato INstitute luncheon, Given because he was named one of the top 5 conservatives in the U.S. by this organization he told the members of this ultraconservative organization that they shouldlike him because:

The Appeal of Howard Dean
From the September 15, 2003 issue: Why he could be Bush's more dangerous opponent.
by Stephen Moore



SEVERAL YEARS AGO an obscure Democratic governor from the politically inconsequential state of Vermont was the guest speaker at a Cato Institute lunch. His name was Howard Dean. He had been awarded one of the highest grades among all Democrats (and a better grade than at least half of the Republicans) in the annual Cato Fiscal Report Card on the Governors. We were curious about his views because we had heard that he harbored political ambitions beyond the governorship.

Dean charmed nearly everyone in the boardroom. He came across as erudite, policy savvy, and, believe it or not, a friend of free markets--at least by the standards of the Tom Daschle-Dick Gephardt axis of the Democratic party. Even when challenged on issues like environmentalism, where he favored a large centralized mass of intrusive regulations, Dean remained affable.

"You folks at Cato," he told us, "should really like my views because I'm economically conservative and socially laissez-faire." Then he continued: "Believe me, I'm no big-government liberal. I believe in balanced budgets, markets, and deregulation. Look at my record in Vermont." He was scathing in his indictment of the "hyper-enthusiasm for taxes" among Democrats in Washington.

He left--and I will never forget the nearly hypnotic reaction. The charismatic doctor had made believers of several hardened cynics. Nearly everyone agreed that we had finally found a Democrat we could work with. Since then, I've watched Dean's career with more than a little interest and we chat from time to time on the phone.


http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/073ylkiz.asp

This is the same Howard Dean who tried to re-invent himself as the "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" .

The members of the Cato Institute, founded by two of George Bush and PNAC's most ardent supporters stating they have found a Democratic they can work with.

None of the other candidates have ever been rated among this organizations select group honored for conservatism. Few Democrats have since that organization was created. Dean was rated more conservative than half of the elected Reublicans in the United States, and for several year rated by this organization as one of the top five conservative governors in the U.S.

This hardly squares with Deans attempts to run as a more liberal campaign. But the advice given by Dean to the CAto Institute is the real way to find the truth about Deans political stripes. If anyone of his supporters dare ignore Deans own campaign myth, and looks directly at the record. What programs he cut, who's taxes he cut, who's taxes he raised,how much state money he gave to large corporations. Ignore the candidates campaign rhetoric, look at what he actually did, how often he recommended large cuts to social programs to the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the blind, the medieval conditions that his cuts created in Vermonts State mental hospital, The fact that his extemely poor support for the Vermont State University System resulted in that system falling below Mississippi in the ratings for quality education. All in order to pass tax cuts that largely benefited the rich:

In Dean’s most recent tax cut, the wealthiest 1% of Vermonters, (less than 3,000 people) received 27% of the money. The wealthiest 9% got 57%. Most Vermonters got little: about $30 or $40. We would have been better off if the money had been invested in our colleges, our young people, state police, local roads or lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

Now, having cut revenues, Dean is cutting the budget. Cutting back on programs like those for people with disabilities and mental health needs, local roads, public health and safety. He won’t consider new revenue sources, says any consideration of the income tax is off the table and refuses to use any of the “rainy day” funds - taxpayer money set aside specifically for this kind of budget shortfall. So, the same families dealing with layoffs, pay cuts and hard times are bearing the burden of a deficit caused, in part, by tax cuts that benefited the wealthy.

http://www.progressiveparty.org/news/view/?id=19

Deans tax policy as Govenror is onr of the things that endeared him to Cato, which is a notorius anti-tax organization, which beleives in the pure trickle down theory. There was little differce between the tax policy that Dean actually practices as Governor of Vermont, and the tax policy of George W. Bush as president.

One of the primary reasons for Dean losing Iowa, was Dick Gepharts simple publication of articles that were written while Dean was govenrnor, pointing out the number of times he attempted to cut social programs that benefited the elderly and others who live on limited income. The fact that Gephardt reverald that ther was not a single year that Dean did not send a budget to the Vermont Legislature recommending large cuts in social programs, in order to give more tax cuts, nad the fights that the Democratic Party and the Progressive Party had to go throug to block Dean's attempts to make these cuts. Once even a small amount of Deans record as Governor was revealed, and the fact that it did not square with Deans rtesidential campaign, his campaign went south very quickly. He could run, but he could not hide, from his many attacks on social justice, and on those candidates to who the needs of people, not the need for a pretty balance sheet, are the first priority. While Dean could give a good speech about social justice, whenever he had to make a choice between helping the needy, or giving tax breaks to the well off in the belief that giving to the rich will result in a trickle down to the poor, Dean always chose the conservative, trickle down ideal.

Dean may really be well meaning, but his methods were rather ineffective in creating an environment that minimized the suffering of those who needed the most, while trusting that the wealthy would do the right thing and trickle down those tax cuts. The last four years of supply side, trickle down, give the rich tax breaks because they are the engine of job creation economics, has not worked. This philosophy has created more poverty, a larger divide between the rich and the poor and a tepid economy. This is the economic philosophy that Dean lived by when he had the power to do otherwise. And he still clings to that fiscally conservative policy. The Democraticd Party favors fiscal responsibility, which is something entirely different. Tax fairness, to raise revenues, not cuts to social programs, is the Democratic Party's platform for balancing budgets. This was never Howard Deans philosophy, and certainly never his practice.

As a leading Vermont Democrat Pointed out in 1998, long before Dean aspired to the presidency:

Angering Democrats

Dean prides himself on his penny-pinching. Every year, it seems, he threatens to veto the budget if it raises the income tax or rises higher than inflation. Every year, the Legislature caves in to his demands.

This strategy leading by veto threat maddens liberal House Democrats, whom Dean often treats like unruly children.

In 1995, after Dean made cuts in programs for low-income Vermonters and Vermonters with disabilities, House Speaker Michael Obuchowski lashed out. "There's a lack of leadership and a lack of vision at the highest levels of the state of Vermont," Obuchowski, D-Bellows Falls, said at the time. "And I mean Howard Dean."

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/specialnews/dean/11.htm