Dean promises to crack down on corporate greed

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean vows to crack down on corporate greed. Dean says it’s time for a new “social contract for the 21st century.” Dean says corporations have gotten into a position where they have so much power over our lives, but have no commitment to ordinary working people. Dean says Americans have stopped trusting their employers and believe their employers will move facilities anywhere in the world to “maximize the bottom line.” Dean says corporations have to change, and realize American workers “are not just cogs in a big corporate machine.” Dean says you don’t have to change antitrust laws which outlaw monopolies. Dean says you just have to start enforcing the laws that exist, and Dean says President Bush is “loath” to do so. Dean says the ideas for trying to change corporate America started percolating after a meeting he had in Iowa back in February of 2002. Dean says what he discovered from visiting with a group of about 20 “sober-minded” Iowans was they weren’t furious and angry with corporations, they were disappointed and afraid their employers were going to move their jobs out-of-the-country, and he says that’s happened in a lot of places. Dean says he’ll try to enforce rules for businesses to restore Americans’ faith in institutions like their employer and their government. Dean’s campaigned in Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown Grinnell today. At 4:30, he’ll be in Newton and then, later tonight, he’ll be in Des Moines.