For those who think this site has gone too easy on Howard Dean, this article fairly and comprehensively sets forth the episodes in Dean's record which should leave progressives concerned: Dean slashed millions of dollars from all sorts of social programs, from prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients and heating assistance for poorer Vermonters to housing assistance funds. In defending his cuts to social programs, Dean said, "I don’t think I have to shy away from that just because I’m supposed to be a liberal Democrat." Throughout the 1990s, Dean’s cuts in state aid to education ($6 million), retirement funds for teachers and state employees ($7 million), health care ($4 million), welfare programs earmarked for the aged, blind and disabled ($2 million), Medicaid benefits ($1.2 million) and more, amounted to roughly $30 million. Dean claimed that the cuts were necessary because the state had no money and was burdened by a $60 million deficit. But during the same period, Dean found $7 million for a low-interest loan program for businesses, $30 million for a new prison in Springfield, VT, and he cut the income tax by 8 percent (equivalent to $30 million)–a move many in the legislature balked at because they didn’t feel comfortable "cutting taxes in a way that benefits the wealthiest taxpayers." By 2002, state investments in prisons increased by nearly 150 percent while investments in state colleges increased by only 7 percent Rosenthal takes particular pride in culling that Dean admits that he recognized early on that the popular anger at Bush is "a raw energy, an energy that I know could be channeled." His suggestion is that this shows that Dean is someone who is sure to repay our support by cutting our living standards and promoting American power abroad... Alternatively, it could show exactly why Howard Dean might just not. Acknowledging that Howard Dean the candidate is descended more from the popular response to George Bush than from the record of Howard Dean - that he is, like any candidate, a vessel for the forces which have lifted him above the surface - should lead to more soul-searching among progressives than the conclusion either that therefore he'll be loyal or that therefore he'll abandon it.