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Here is the part mentioning Newt:
"The story begins in 1993. As I mentioned earlier, that was the year I led the fight as Democratic Leader to pass the Clinton Economic Plan and balance the budget. It brought back fiscal discipline, asked the wealthy to pay their fair share, and cut wasteful spending - not Social Security and Medicare. Not a single Republican voted for that plan but we passed it by one vote. It went on to create 22 million new jobs and led to the longest period of economic growth in our country's history. In fact, that great economy led to gigantic budget surpluses that allowed us, for the first time in decades, to begin paying down the national debt. The debt was to be erased by 2012 and the saved interest would extend the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund for fifty years.
"But one year later, before the benefits of that economic plan could yet be seen, we lost the Congress in no small part because a lot of Democrats made that courageous vote. That's when the Gingrich Republicans took over and began advocating plans to push seniors out of Medicare and into managed care plans. This has been the Republican position on Medicare since its inception. In 1965, Republicans advocated a privatized Medicare program and voted against the Medicare program that eventually passed that year.
"Thirty years later, in the midst of the so-called Republican Revolution, Howard Dean actually agreed with the Gingrich Republicans. His home state newspaper reported time and again how Howard Dean supported turning Medicare into a managed care program.
"I don't know about the other candidates, but I think making Medicare a wholly managed care program, whether it's run by the government or private companies, is the wrong thing to do and I'd never agree to that as President of the United States.
"But in 1995, the Republicans were looking to do even more. That same year, the Gingrich Republicans confronted President Clinton and the Democrats and demanded a $270 billion dollar cut in Medicare. In fact, Gingrich shut the government down in an attempt to force President Clinton to accept those Medicare cuts which they needed to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Sound familiar? It was in this period when Gingrich said Republicans wouldn't immediately kill Medicare, instead, they'd let it ‘wither on the vine.'
"And it was also during this time that Howard Dean, as Chairman of the National Governor's Association, was supporting Republican efforts to scale back Medicare. Howard Dean told a gathering of reporters that the way to balance the budget was to cut Social Security, move the retirement age to 70, and cut defense, Medicare, and veterans' pensions. Well, I couldn't disagree more with Howard Dean. This is not what we stand for as Democrats.
"In the end, I was proud of that moment in history. 1995 was the time for the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party to stand up and be counted. I led House Democrats as we joined with President Clinton and we stopped the Medicare cuts and forced the Republicans to abandon the government shutdown.
"In 1995, we won the fight to protect Social Security and Medicare and I'll never abandon that fight as president.
"Both sides in any battle will speak the gospel of perseverance. It can be, at once, the greatest virtue and the greatest threat. Today, Republicans are still pushing their rejected policies from the past which is why we must be ever-vigilant. Today it's their inadequate prescription drug program that shoves seniors into a privatized Medicare system. Tomorrow it will again be privatizing Social Security.
"It's like the movie Groundhog Day, we keep waking up and reliving the same Republican nightmares: irresponsible tax cuts, huge deficits, a national debt that's growing again, and plans to privatize Social Security and Medicare. We can change that in 2004.
"When I'm president, we'll get this economy moving again the right way with health care for all, a strong aggressive trade policy that creates jobs, and a focus on raising up the middle class. It's what I helped Bill Clinton do in the 1990s. And by beating George Bush, it's what you can help me do in 2004.
"This is an economic plan that can not only re-energize our country it can help preserve Social Security for decades to come. It's a far superior plan to President Bush's dangerous scheme of privatizing Social Security. Like we did in 1993, and again in 1995, we have to do the right thing; we have to be straight with the American people and, as Democrats, we have to stand for something.
"Elections are about differences. As Democrats, we need a nominee who is clearly different from George Bush on protecting our seniors from deep cuts to Medicare, and on privatizing Medicare. These are the issues where we know we can beat this president. I, for one, am not willing to cede the moral high ground to George Bush. We can beat this president on the issues but we have to fight on our issues, and not his.
"I believe deeply in the effectiveness and success of Medicare and Social Security. I believe we can improve these lifelines by raising them up, and not tearing them down. And I believe in the sanctity of a social compact that says we will not balance our budgets by placing our elders in peril.
"We can win this election, but we have to stay true to our shared principles of protecting one another and of protecting our country. One cannot be sacrificed at the expense of the other. This is a critical time in our country's history, a time when choices must be made that will affect the direction of our party for generations to come.