Bush's policies have hurt workers in South Carolina

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Ben Boozer: Clemson institute helps communities prepare for the future (02/02/04) • Walter Ezell: Voters should look for vision, moral authority, ability to lead (02/02/04) • Diane Smock and Buddy Puckett: County must welcome all students so none is left behind (02/01/04) • Mike Campbell: South Carolina has no business trading with Castro's Cuba (01/29/04) • Joey R. Preston: Citizens are picking up the tab for the state (01/26/04) More details Howard Dean served 11 years as governor of Vermont and is a Democratic candidate for president. He is a physician who has served in Vermont's House and as the state's lieutenant governor. For more information, go to deanforamerica.com.

In the month of November alone, South Carolina lost 4,400 jobs and 11,900 people were unemployed for so long they stopped looking for work. Since President Bush took office, one quarter of South Carolina's textile jobs have disappeared. Across the state, roughly 5,400 unemployed workers are losing their benefits this month, the victims of an uncaring Republican Congress and an indifferent Bush administration.

The facts are clear. President Bush's policies have spelled disaster for South Carolina's economy and his trade policies are harmful to the interests of working Americans. President Bush is much more concerned about the needs of big multinational corporations, while the concerns of America's workers are tossed aside. We need trade agreements that will benefit workers, so we can have an economy that works for all Americans. And we must make our textile industry, our steel industry and other industries strong and competitive again.

To stop the hemorrhage of jobs, we need to get tough in the enforcement of trade agreements. The Bush administration has brought only eight trade cases before the World Trade Organization. Over the same time period, the Clinton administration filed 27 WTO actions. Moreover, the Bush administration has lost 14 of the 16 WTO cases it has defended.

This dismal track record means lost American jobs and lost business opportunities. I will stand up for U.S. trade laws and ensure that American workers, farmers and businesses get the benefits we bargained for.

Unlike President Bush, I will also oppose any legislation that encourages corporations to move overseas. Such tax breaks are an outrage. As corporations pay less and less of the tax burden, America's workers pay more and more. As president, I will veto those breaks if they reach my desk, and I will work hard to make sure that current corporate tax loopholes are closed.

But we need to do more than save American jobs. We need to create new ones — good jobs that pay well and that are secure — the kind that will let South Carolinians and all Americans realize their hopes and dreams.

And we can do it. We can bring new industries to areas hardest hit by manufacturing job losses. We can provide education, training and health-care portability for displaced workers and for those just entering the work force so they can get and hold these new jobs.

The key to a strong and healthy economy is a well-educated and healthy work force. President Bush talks about helping American workers, while he cuts education programs and reduces help for those who lose their job. He talks about health care while millions more Americans lose their health insurance. In South Carolina, almost half a million people are uninsured; 103,000 of them are children. Because of state budget cuts, 7,000 South Carolinians are being cut from public health care assistance. Meanwhile, the president keeps pushing for more tax cuts for the wealthy.

There is another way. I have a clear, practical plan to extend health care to all Americans, and a program to guarantee a higher education for every American child. And I am committed to ending the fiscal insanity that is mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future, and turning us into the world's largest debtor nation.

But we will not be able to accomplish this necessary change with the current occupant of the White House. Although the Bush administration will try to divide us over divisive social issues at election time, I believe that the people of this great state will see through that rhetoric.

When the people choose to work together to realize America's promise for every family and every individual — not just a favored few — we can have an economy that works for all Americans. And when people come together to reclaim their democracy, we will have the power to take our country back.