Dean: You’re not bursting my bubble, but I sure hope we’re gonna win the Minnesota caucuses too.

[Laughter.]

Unidentified woman: I’ll be turning out people in precincts in Stearns County [Minnesota].

Dean: Thank you. Thank you.

Unidentified woman: Thank you for talking about the Bush Tax. You can say more. Ken Lay and the boys didn’t only steal the retirement accounts of the Enron employees. Lots of retirement funds around the country, like TIAA-Cref, which enrolls a lotta, lotta people like me, lost a lotta money on Enron.

Dean: Yep.

Unidentified woman: That money’s not comin’ back, and what’s left in my retirement account is gonna go away like the snow with the inflation that’s gonna happen if the deficits don’t stop.

Dean: That’s right. [Applause.] You know, a lot of – a lot of my opposition in the Democratic Party, and of course, the Republicans, are all saying how much McGovern I am – like I am, I’m doomed to win – to lose, because I’m just like George McGovern. Well, the truth is that I’m actually the only person running for president of the United States, including the president, who’s ever balanced a budget. And I believe in balancing budgets, and I believe in being really strict about finances, because it’s an issue of social justice. In our state, I was governor for so long that I actually served through both Bush recessions, not just one of them.

[Laughter. Applause.]

Just wanted to see if everyone was paying attention. [Laughter.]

And one of the things I learned after the – the ’91 recession in New England and California was really, really deep. It was the worst recession since the Great Depression. It was like your farm problems here in the ‘80s here, it was really, really a problem. And we had a tough time balancing the budget.

When all the money came in in the ‘90s, we didn’t cut taxes much. We cut them a little bit, we put a little bit aside, and we paid off a quarter of the state’s debt between 1996 and 2003. So, when the bad times came, we did not cut higher education, we didn’t cut K-12 education, we didn’t cut kids off health care, and we still balanced the budget. If you care about social justice, you gotta care about balanced budgets, because what happens is, if you stoke up a lot of programs that can’t be funded in bad times, then a whole lot of people are out of luck. College students – look what’s happening to college students right now. It is really tough paying for college education. That doesn’t have to happen, but you’ve gotta have people who can manage money. Not one Republican president’s balanced the budget in 34 years in America. You just can’t trust Republicans with your money.

[Laughter. Applause. Cheering.]

Brokaw: Welcome to North Dakota, Governor Dean. My name is Greg Brokaw. North Dakota raises the best beef in the world. Our farmers and ranchers are unfortunately – are at the mercy of the meatpacking companies. As president, would you support country-of-origin labeling, and a federal ban on packer ownership of livestock, so that they would have fair and open markets?

Dean: Yes, and yes. Not only will I support COOL and a ban on packer ownership, I’m also going to appoint an Attorney General who will enforce the anti-trust laws so that people who are in the cattle business selling to packers don’t get left having bought a lot of equipment, and then don’t have any contract to sell beef anymore. We are gonna make those changes.

And while we’re talking about beef farmers, I also think it’s a disgrace that the president of the United States sat on his rear end and stopped the legislation that Tom Harkin and others got through, that would have prevented downer cows from being sold, because if he had done that – [applause]. Every – one of the volunteers in our campaign in Iowa is a beef farmer, he’s driving us around, he can’t sell his calves. That means he can’t pay his January bills. This president was told by people – or his Agriculture Department was told by people who knew, ‘cause it was eventually gonna happen. If we put in the safeguards that we could have put in, then a whole lot of people like you wouldn’t be worried about how to pay your January bills. So, what we –-

The thing that gets me about the Republicans is, they never figured out what capitalism really works like. Capitalism is a good part of American values, and it’s made this country great. But capitalism with no rules is like a hockey game with no referee. Everybody benefits from rules. You know, the industry’s spent so much time fighting legislation about not selling downer cows, and now who’s paying for it? The beef farmers, right? If you have the rules, it makes sense. You need to give people confidence in your product.

So, all I’m saying is, these corporations that are unraveling American life for their own bottom line don’t understand that, in the end, they’re the ones that are gonna get bitten. And I plan to bite ‘em in November of 2004.

[Laughter. Applause. Cheering.]

[Many thanks to Chris Saunders for emailing me this transcript - Crocuta.]