Enron Economics -- Dean's Houston Speech

If our country is so rich, why am I barely getting by? If our country is so strong, why are we being made to feel so afraid? If our country is so powerful, why do I feel so powerless?

These questions are larger than any one issue or program or policy prescription.

What I have seen and heard across America is that people feel disconnected from their government and our business leaders -- and from one another. They are afraid America is becoming more and more hated across the world. And they worry that they may always be struggling just to make ends meet.

This is where our country is. And this is what has shaped our campaign into what it is today.

We stand here today for all those who feel that Washington has forgotten them.

We stand here today for all those who believe that when our government serves only the big corporations, it betrays everything our country represents.

We stand here today for all those who believe America should not only be feared by the world, but admired.

We stand here today ready to challenge the old political order which has shut the people out of the process. We stand here ready to declare with our voices and our votes: "America is better than this."

Not far from here stands Enron Tower. It symbolizes all that is wrong with our country today.

At Enron, those at the top enriched themselves by deceiving everyone else and robbing ordinary people of the future they'd earned. And the Bush Administration is following their lead. They have created an economic program that enriches their friends and supporters at the expense of ordinary working Americans. A program deserving of the name -- Enron Economics."

We were promised fiscal responsibility. We've gotten a 9 trillion dollar increase in the nation's debt over ten years. We were told that tax cuts would reduce the deficit, but the government's chief auditor -- a Republican -- says that's flat false."

Enron Economics benefits those who make the most -- their share of the tax burden declined from 28 percent in the 1990s to nearly 20 percent today. Meanwhile, everyone else suffers -- cities and states across America are raising property taxes health insurance premiums and college tuition. Schools are closing and teachers and police officers are being laid off. Funding for Medicaid and housing is being cut â'" and our infrastructure continues to crumble.

We know what happened to Enron. Moral bankruptcy led to fiscal bankruptcy. And the ethos of Enron is where our politics and policies have led us in America.

But every one of us here today knows that Enron Tower marks the end of an era, because right here, less than one mile away, the new era is being born.

And it begins with you.