Candidate supporter questions: Dean

[cindyw]

In the interest of calling for civility here, I am posting a separate thread for three of the candidates. If you are a supporter of the other candidates, I urge you to copy this thread and post for your candidate. If you are a supporters answer the following questions.

1)How will your candidate fix the Iraq war situation? Will he pull the troops out? Should the president continue to have sole authority to run this war? How does this war relate to the broader War on Terrorism?

2)How will your candidate fix the economy? How does his ideas sit if the economy improves with out without jobs returning? Does he have a larger plan for economic fairness?

3)How will your candidate lead on the issue of civil rights? Affirmative action, GLBT issues, Patriot act, etc.

4)How will your candidate deal with energy and environment issues? How does this relate back to the issue of jobs?

[dsc]

1. some answers

1) Dean favors getting the UN into Iraq. Until such time as he can do that he feels the US presence does need maintained. Barring an ability to turn back time he feels we are stuck with Iraq unless we can get the UN in. He has a full plan on his website.

2) Dean believes in recreating the factors that were present in Clinton's term. He wants to get our fiscal house in order, repeal the tax cuts, and use some of the money for stimulation.

3) He wants to see ENDA, anti hate crimees legislation, and to force states to recognize gay relationships. He is in favor of the AA program the U of Michigan had. He is staunchly pro women's rights. His judiciary and AG department would enforce these laws.

not sure of 4 though his record is very good on the enviroment.

[lastliberalintexas]

2. In addition to what dsc has written

1. I am not certian how Dean will be able to implement his post-war plans. He has said that he wants the US to forego control of the country's resources and allow the UN to act as peacekeeper. The problem there is that very few other countries have even hinted that they would be willing to send their people to Iraq to act as peacekeepers (not that I blame them!). And those countries that have said they might be willing to do so don't necessarily *help* the situation, a la Turkey. This will be a problem for whichever candidate gets elected in 2004, but I hope that the rest of the world will look at the various proposals of the candidates more favorably once Shrub is out of office.

2. Dean has many ideas concerning the economy, one of which is to work with Congress to modify NAFTA and other trade treaties to provide greater protections for American jobs and workers. Dean has also shown a great deal of fiscal responsibility in his governance, and wants to work towards balancing the federal budget again. He's said that he understands this will take some time given the mess Shrub's group has made. But even decreasing the deficit has positive effects on the economy, since it reduces the amount we owe (mostly) foreign countries for bonds, redcues our debt servicing fees and monies, and has a stabilizing effect on our markets. it's definitely not a panacea for everything that ails our economy, but it's a good start. He'd also like to repeal Shrub's tax cuts, work on targeted tax cuts to the poor and middle class which would actually spur the economy in the short run rather than line wealthy investors' pockets, and close the tax loopholes for companies that relocate overseas. And I'm not sure that the economy CAN improve without the return or creation of jobs, so I am not sure what you mean by that.

3. I think dsc covered most of this very well. But Dean has also said that he would like to repeal vast portions of the Patriot Act (if not the whole thing). And he has come out strongly opposed to Patriot Act II.

4. This is probably where Dean is the weakest in policy, though he did have a pretty good record while Governor. He does have a fairly comprehensive plan to try to promote the creation/research of alternative energy sources and renewable sources. And he has since realized that deregulation is a bad thing, as evidenced by Enron, for example. In response, he has called for greater regulation of utilities of all kinds. I'm not sure of how his plans relate to job growth, other than the fact that renewable energy technologies will be a booming economic sector in the years to come. The question we face is whether we want some of those jobs to be in the US.

[Lady President]

3. Me too?

I'm not hijacking this thread, but I really want to know from any Dean supporter about his tax plan. In particular how eliminating the middle class tax cut is beneficial to the middle class. I don't have a background in economics, so a simple explanation would be great.

[lastliberalintexas]

4. Because

he then wants to work on a real tax plan with cuts actually targeted to the middle class and poor, rather than all the waste included in Shrub's. You have to look at the second step, in that he wants to get tax cuts for the middle class which are *better* than those included in Shrub's plan. (that's not a criticism of Congressional and Senate Dems- they fought to get what they could for the middle class).

Also, Dean wants to use some of the remaining tax repeal to work on reducing the deficit and on a quasi-universal health care program. Either and both of which would greatly benefit the middle class far more than the measly tax cut of Shrub's.

BTW- Kerry has a pretty good plan too. I just wish he and the others would also focus more on reducing the deficit and getting back to balanced budgets so that our debt servicing fees and bond payments could be reduced. That hurts the middle class far more than most people realize. Maybe someone with a Phd in economics could explain it better than I!

[Lady President]

6. Let's see if I get it

If I understand correctly, under Dean's plan there would still be benefits for the middle class. Would he keep the current plan until a replacement tax plan was voted into place? My concern is that Dean would completely eliminate the Bush plan, but there would be a significant lag time before Dean's plan was put into place. If that happened the middle class would be lacking their tax cut money, but would still have the added responsibility of the higher state and local taxes that resulted from the Bush plan. I'm assuming that all the Dem. candidates want to eliminate the huge tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.

Kerry's goal plan would include eliminating the tax cut for the wealthy and trying to get a larger cut for the poor and middle class. It seems to me that both Kerry's and Dean's plans are quite similar. They both appear to have the same bottom line, but will take steps to reach it in a slightly different order.

Btw, thanks for taking my question in the spirit in which it was intended and not an attempt to start problems. :)

[lastliberalintexas]

9. You're very welcome

I'm not sure how Dean would be able to implement his plan, since it is likely that at least one house of Congress will still be controlled by the repubs- a problem all our candidates will face. I haven't heard him say (nor have I read anywhere) the timeline for implementing his plan, so I am not sure if he would ask that the current levels be left in place or not.

And yes, in the long run, I think he and Kerry (and Edwards, Clark and Gephardt) all have pretty similar (and good) tax plans- they just differ on how to get there. And not to turn this into a flamefest, but I think even Lieberman agrees with the rest on this!

And you're welcome for the response. I ask for information sometimes (and genuinely am looking for the info, not out to criticize someone) and get flamed for it, so I try not to do that to others!

Kerry's a good candidate too- he's still my #2 in fact. I just keep reminding myself that DUers aren't really representative of the population at large, since we tend to be more informed and aware, so we're also more scared of the next election and its import. If I can remember that, I can *usually* avoid the flamefests!

[dsc]

5. Among other reasons

interest rates. Clinton was able to have both high levels of growth and low interest rates. That lead to some of the lowest levels of mortgage rates and unemployment that history has seen. It takes only a very small drop in those rates to translate to thousands of dollars a year for the holder of a relatively modest mortgage. Interest rates are low right now but only because of the crappy economy. If Bush's third quarter numbers hold up we see a large increase in those rates which will devastate the middle class. If they don't the economy will stay crappy which will also devastate them.

Now, as to why that is relevant to Dean. The only reason Clinton was able to have both was that he put our fiscal house in order. He got us on a glide path toward a balanced budget which let interest rates fall. That fall in interest rates directly translated to thousands of dollars per year in savings to the typical mortgage holder. That is why getting rid of those taxes will, in the intermediate and long run, help the middle class.

[Lady President]

7. Extemely low rates may hurt the poor

I'm torn about how much low interest rates help the middle class. Actually, I think I'm more concerned with how much "creative mortgages" are hurting the middle class at least in my area. In the last couple of years there have been hundreds of middle class people in my area who have abandoned suburban homes because they were lured into mortgages with seemingly low interest rates that ballooned later. (But that's probably an entirely different issue.)

I can see that in general low interest rates help the middle class, but it is harming the lower class. I most recently worked for a low income housing syndicator and low interest rates translates into lower tax credit amounts for corporations. Usually, I don't care much about tax credits for companies, but in this case if the interest rates stay extremely low, then companies stop investing in low income housing. These apartment complexes are nothing like the old "projects", but instead are attractive, safe, and have many social services for the people. Of course, reinstating Clinton's dividend taxes would solve most of this dilemma.

The rates under Clinton were great because they occurred because of a solid economy, rather than an attempt to jumpstart a lagging economy. It is staggering the damage Bush* has done in a few years. Thank you for trying to put this in context for me. I appreciate it. :)

[dsc]

8. You first issue is tangentially related

mainly the rates got low enough that the flim flam artists fell below the rate that is usary. The second has a simple fix. Directly pay for the things with government money or make the credits refundable.