Good afternoon. I'm very glad to be here. You know, when I announced my campaign for President, I said that I was running to be a champion for the regular people of America. They're still not sure what that means in Washington, DC - but out here in America, you all know what I mean.

I grew up in a small town called Robbins, in North Carolina. It's about an hour south of the Research Triangle Park. It's only 60 miles away from the Triangle and Duke and N.C. State and UNC, but it's a lot farther away than that.

When I was growing up, Robbins was a textile mill town. My dad worked in the mills, and he worked his way up to plant supervisor. My mom's last job was in the Post Office.

I was the first member of my family to go to college. During the summers, I swept floors at the mill, unloaded trucks at UPS, and worked at a mobile home factory to help out and to put myself through school.

It wasn't a rich life, but it was a loving life. It was a time and a place where you could work, save your money and send your children to college. And the most important things parents could pass to their children were the values of hard work, family, faith, and community.

My parents, those values, and that life are why I'm here today.

I am running for President to be a champion for the people I grew up with, the people I represented as a lawyer, people like all of you, regular Americans, working hard every day to build a better life for themselves and their families.

I am running to be a voice for all the voices that aren't heard in Washington today.

I am running to restore hope and opportunity to rural and small-town America.

I am running to lead the real America that George W. Bush likes to talk about, but always seems to forget.

Because today, in North Carolina, Iowa and across our country, in small towns and rural communities, our lifestyle and all the values it represents, are under siege.

While the rest of America grapples with an economic downturn, recession has become a permanent way of life for much of rural America. In Robbins today, the mills are closing, and the jobs are going to Mexico and China. Farmers are going under. Schools have trouble keeping good teachers, because the teachers want to work in Raleigh and Charlotte. Health care is expensive and hard to get.

And what's happening? Our children are leaving in search of opportunities they can no longer find at home. States like Iowa are struggling just to hold their population. And even in states like mine, where the population is growing, the growth is almost always at the expense of small-town and rural communities. The poorest county in America today is a rural county in Nebraska.

Rural America and small-town America are in trouble, and George W. Bush just doesn't get it. Corporate America doesn't get it. The lobbyists who prowl the halls of Congress certainly don't get it.

And the terrible truth is that half the time you look to find out what the Administration is doing to fight the problem, you find them conspiring to make it worse.

Last week I spoke to Tammi Poppe, who told me that her family's health and quality of life were destroyed when the gases emitted by a corporate hog farm gave her 3 year-old son Chase convulsions. The Poppes were finally driven from their land, leaving behind an abandoned house that was once their dream home. They now look forward to an uncertain future, wondering if the damage to Chase's health will be permanent.

We have a crisis in rural and small-town America. And it is time to do something about it.

What has this President done?

He's watered down corporate reforms.

He eliminated the Rural Education Achievement program that helps smaller schools buy computers and school buses.

He cut the farm bill's support for rural broadband Internet service, which our farmers and small town businesses need to compete.

He cut programs that use cable technology to connect people in rural areas and small-towns with the best doctors and best hospitals in America-- a critical answer to the rural health care crisis. He wants to force seniors who want a real prescription drug benefit to enter HMOs—even though HMOs don't even serve many rural communities.

He's abandoned the fight for international workplace and environmental standards, to ensure that free trade is also fair trade.

And he's done it all at a time when small farmers are being squeezed out of business, small towns are dying and our young people are leaving.

Remember - the President's stood right here. He came here to promote his energy policy. Then he went back to Washington and cut millions for efforts like this, while fighting for billions more for the big oil industry. You know what they say about friends like these ....

Just because you have yourself a new ranch and wear a big belt buckle, doesn't make you a friend of rural America.

But let's be honest - yes, given the chance to take the side of big corporate interests over hard-working Americans, this President will take the side of corporate interests every time. But my party isn't perfect by any means. Too many Democrats too often act like rural America is just someplace to fly over between a fundraiser in Manhattan and a fundraiser in Beverly Hills.

Well, this is where I come from. And I'm here today, not to use this plant as a cynical backdrop, not to stop by on my way out West, but to offer a plan; a real plan to save and strengthen rural and small-town America for ourselves and our children, and to honor the values of the heartland, which have made America great.

We need to take dramatic steps in four areas to bring new life to the great plains, rolling hills, and small towns of rural America. First, we need to draw the capital and encourage the investment that rural businesses need in order to prosper. Second, we need to use the power of new technology to make the most of rural communities' extraordinary strengths. Third, we need to help rural communities restore the basic support systems that are elements of every successful community, like good schools and good health care. And fourth, we need to take responsibility for preserving the rural way of life, both the small farms and the beautiful country that define this part of America.

And we have to do all of this in a way that respects the ethic of thrift that is bred into the bones of anyone who has ever lived on a farm or grown up in a home where waste is not an option. We have to pay for these efforts, and we can do it by eliminating big subsidies for special corporate interests.

As I said, the first part of my plan to take steps to invest in rural economies in a way that will help communities like yours and mine to create and keep good jobs.

Rural America's economic potential is enormous; the ingenuity of America's farmers, scientists and small town entrepreneurs creates new ideas and new opportunities every day.

But as long as rural communities are shut out of the capital markets, good ideas can't be harvested for good jobs. Today, a tiny fraction of venture capital goes to non-metropolitan areas. Only 10% of the money in the Treasury Department's community development fund ever gets to rural America. That's wrong.

In North Carolina, the Rural Center has proven how small investments in small businesses can create good jobs and revitalize struggling small towns.

As President, I'll enact the Rural Economic Advancement Challenge, or REACH Fund. We'll make a five-year, $1 billion investment in bringing capital and the skills to use it to small-town America. The REACH Fund will bring investors from big cities together with entrepreneurs in small towns; it will offer training and support to those entrepreneurs; and it will connect businesses that might struggle alone into networks that can succeed together.

There are special challenges for manufacturing towns. Robbins, the town where I come from, just lost the poultry plant that employed 200 people—a number equal to about 20% of Robbins' whole population. My state lost over 125,000 textile jobs in just a few years. And small towns throughout Iowa have suffered similar blows, as old manufacturing plants flee to places where workers are paid little and environmental standards are lax.

In the transition to the new economy, we must be willing to offer special help to communities caught in the switches. When a big-city neighborhood hits hard times, we create empowerment zones and give those communities special benefits. We need to expand efforts to give those benefits to hard-hit small towns and rural communities. As President, I will designate these areas as Rural Revitalization Zones, eligible for the New Markets Tax Credit and other incentives to encourage business investment.

With Congressman Leonard Boswell, I have sponsored a plan for an immediate infusion of $50 billion to help state and local governments, which have been ravaged by the recession and homeland security costs, and all-but-abandoned by this President.

But it is also true that many small-towns are not getting resources for which they are currently qualified. They are penalized, simply because they lack the elaborate, grant-writing operations big cities can afford.

As President, I'll simplify the grant-writing process so the competition for federal funds is decided on the basis of need, and not merely fundraising expertise.

The second thing we need to is to harness the new technologies in service to rural America—and, in fact, in service to all America.

As we've seen in North Carolina and Iowa, the partnership between startup business and research scientists at our great, state universities creates great value. As President, I'll increase federal funding for biotech research to help transform the rural economy.

Once, American farmers needed the help of our nation to bring power to the land, and Franklin Roosevelt responded with the Rural Electrification Administration. Today our nation needs the help of American farmers to bring America clean, homegrown energy. Instead of buying oil in the Middle East, we can grow our energy here in the Midwest.

This plant is testimony to the vast potential of renewable energy in rural America.

Right here at BECON, researchers are planting the seeds of a whole new rural economy, one where fuels, chemicals and plastics are made with agricultural products that add value, cut pollution, create jobs and build prosperity in small towns like Nevada, Iowa. Just a mile or so away, windmills are generating electricity without creating one drop of acid rain. Switchgrass that has grown on Iowa farms for generations will someday help power coal plants here.

At a time when ethanol prices are sagging, we need a good energy bill that strengthens demand for renewables like ethanol without deepening our dependence on a dig-and-drill energy policy. But that should be only the beginning. As President, I want to build on your successes here by launching the Fueling America's Future program. We'll help set up biorefineries in rural communities to transform farm wastes like cornhusks and crops like switchgrass into energy that can be sold for profit.

We'll offer tax credits to reward investments in renewable fuels and accelerate those technologies.

And we will require increased use of renewable fuels for electricity.

Fuels grown on the farm can cut oil consumption by over 50 million barrels a year. They can clean our air and create profitable new markets for our farmers. And the factories needed to process these fuels mean scores of new, well paying manufacturing jobs in communities that desperately need them.

To grow, businesses and farmers also need access to the fundamental tools of competition in the 21st century. And that means high-speed Internet service. Today, the Information Superhighway bypasses large swaths of America, leaving small towns and rural communities behind. It has now been over a year since the CEOs of Intel, Cisco Systems, and other top companies called on this administration to create a National Broadband Policy. They haven't. That is economic negligence, plain and simple.

We need a national goal to bring affordable high-speed Internet access to every rural community in America within four years. And then we need the steps to reach that goal. North Carolina has made tremendous strides with a plan called "E-NC." My "E-USA" plan will do the same for America. Today, many Iowa farmers are able to stand in their fields and get up-to-the-minute commodity prices using receivers attached to grain silos. Their Internet access is as good as many Wall Street firms. That is the kind of success we have to repeat over and again.

Third, we have to help rural communities struggling to provide the basic network of services that every thriving community depends on.

My path from Robbins to this platform today was paved by a public education, right through my law degree. I still remember the teachers who opened my eyes to the world outside. But today, we have a critical teaching shortage in rural and small-town America that threatens the future of our children and the economic viability of our communities.

As President, I'll help address that problem, with new initiatives to boost teacher salaries in rural areas and offer scholarships to young people who commit to teach in rural schools. And I'll make it a national priority to ensure that rural classrooms can use the state-of-the-art technology they need to give all our children the advantages they deserve.

With the rapid inflation in college costs, even at state universities and community colleges, too many families are being stretched beyond their limits to give their children the tools they need. My College for Everyone will make the dream of higher education possible for every qualified student who is willing to work ten hours a week to earn it.

If we do these things, our children will be prepared to seize the opportunities the new economy will create right here in rural and small-town America.

We have a health care crisis in America. And though this crisis demands a comprehensive, national plan to improve access and reduce costs, there are health care challenges unique to small towns and rural areas: Fewer doctors. Longer distances to travel in emergencies. Hospitals in serious financial trouble.

These challenges have been compounded by unjust federal Medicare and Medicaid funding formulas which punish rural health care facilities, and we have to do something about that. As a member of the Senate's bipartisan Rural Health Caucus, I've worked on legislation to give rural hospitals a fair shake and level the reimbursement rates in Medicare. The Senate just passed a piece of that legislation, and it ought to become law. But we can do more.

As President, I'll improve the quality of health care in rural communities by investing in telemedicine. With telemedicine—and again, that depends on the Internet—people can consult with any doctor in America or the world without leaving their small town.

Finally, we all have a responsibility to safeguard the rural way of life. Today, the small farmers who are the heart of rural America are getting squeezed by big corporations. It used to be that on market days, an Iowa hog farmer could go to five different packers to sell his hogs. Today the same farmer is down to just one buyer, and often that buyer is playing games to drive hog prices down. Some companies are using the country-of-origin labeling law as an excuse to harass farmers.

Antitrust and fair competition laws that are on the books enable the Justice Department to stop companies from abusing their power. But those laws are a paper tiger without a President who is willing to stand up for small farmers. This President won't. I will.

As President, I'll launch a new initiative that I call "Fairness for Farmers"—the toughest, most aggressive enforcement of fair competition laws since Teddy Roosevelt rode into Washington. We will stop the unfair practices that drive down prices, and we'll stop the abuse that aims to discourages farmers from proudly using the "Made in the USA" label that consumers want.

We should help the farmers who need help, not the ones who don't. I have to tell you, as a North Carolinian, I oppose efforts to limit the support the government can give a struggling farmer with a high-cost crop like peanuts or cotton. But it is dead wrong for the government to subsidize farmers who are earning two-and-a-half-million dollars a year. We need to make sure the farm bill is fair and farm subsidies are going to the people who need them, not the ones who don't. I would start by making sure folks making over a million dollars don't get those subsidies.

Over the long run, we can't protect our farmers unless we also protect the land. For generations, farmers have done that—they've earned a decent living and treated their land and neighbors with decency.

Earlier, I mentioned the Poppe family, who were driven from their Iowa farm by the fumes from a nearby hog confinement. We've experienced similar problems in North Carolina. Now, instead of watching out for families like the Poppes, this administration is busy cutting secret, backroom deals with industry insiders to circumvent our clean air laws. They've even gone so far as to choke off research on the effects of these farms on neighboring communities. It's a disgrace.

I know how much a healthy livestock industry means to the economies of my state, your state and rural areas across America. Nothing we do should undercut our farmers. So the answer isn't stifling regulations that shut down our farms. But the answer also isn't to conspire with the industry behind closed doors to thwart clean air laws. The answer is to work together, openly, for solutions that will protect our communities and our livelihoods.

Today, Iowa State and North Carolina State Universities are developing promising new technologies to process hog waste. Here at BECON, Norm Olson and his students are working on ways to turn hog waste into high value chemicals, turning a problem into profits. In the Senate, I have fought hard to fund clean-up technology. As President, I will vigorously protect the air and the water around our farms, and I will give farmers the help they need to get the needed technology and earn a good living at the same time. There's no exception to the clean air laws for rural America. And there's no reason that farmers and rural communities can't live together in harmony again.

Finally, we have to pay for all of this, and we have to do it in a way that helps small farmers, not just big farming businesses.

As I child, I was taught to be responsible with money. This President has betrayed that value at every chance he has had. I've told you what I want to do. Now you deserve to hear how I'll pay for it.

Over six months ago, I offered a plan to bring our country back to fiscal responsibility. I said we should roll back the Bush tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and use attrition to cut the number of government employees and contractors by 10%. My plan would save over $1.6 trillion in the next 20 years.

Today I want to go further. The truth is, people in Washington find it far too easy to forget the folks out here, but they rarely forget the corporate lobbyists who swarm the Capitol every single day. Because of that, the government pays out billions of dollars to corporations that would already be making huge profits without a dime in government help. I've had about enough of this administration's crony capitalism—it's time to go back to the original kind. So I would cut corporate loopholes and subsidies.

Let me tell you how. I'd eliminate the tax loophole for "janitors' insurance," where companies get tax breaks for buying insurance on employees like janitors, even though the employees themselves don't get any benefits. As I said earlier, I'd eliminate farm subsidies to the wealthiest farmers who don't need help. That should stop. And I'd cut subsidies for energy and natural resource uses that don't promote conservation and that we simply can't afford.

It won't be easy, but if we take these steps, we can pay for everything I've mentioned, with money to spare.

This year, I will set out these ideas. Next year, I want to debate them face to face with President Bush.

When I do, I will ask the American people a few simple questions: Do you believe our nation is headed in the right direction? Do you believe the policies in Washington DC today are good for your community? And do you believe you have a President who understands the real America and cares about regular Americans?

For this is not just a matter of government policies. It is a matter of values.

They only honor wealth; we honor the work that creates it. They fight to expand special privileges for special interests; we're fighting to expand opportunity for every American. We believe in taking responsibility; they keep looking for new ways to pass the buck.

I want to represent small-town America and rural America not just for their own sake, but for the sake of the basic American values that flourish here. Honesty and hard work, faith and fairness, patriotism and pride.

I am running for President because I want my party to return to its roots. I want the Democratic Party to champion the forgotten America, not just in the metropolitan areas, but also in the small towns that lie between. I want the Democratic Party to renew its commitment to honest, hard-working Americans who feel they no longer have a voice in Washington.

My campaign is a different Democratic campaign. Not only will I run for the real America, I will run in the real America. I will run against George Bush in the South, in the Midwest, in the small towns, in the farming and factory communities, in Robbins North Carolina, in Nevada, Iowa, and in every corner and every community of this country where real Americans don't believe their voices are being heard today in Washington, DC.

I am running for President to renew a sense of hope and opportunity and optimism throughout all America - not just a few islands of technology and prosperity and high finance.

And I am running for President so I can go toe-to-toe with George W. Bush and tell him that his policies, and the values they represent, are wrong for America

I'll tell George W. Bush that budget-busting tax cuts for millionaires are no substitute for a real economic policy; and that allowing CEOs to profiteer while their workers and shareholders suffer, offends our values.

I'll tell President Bush that an education policy long on slogans but short on support cheats our children; and that environmental policies written by and for the big polluters threaten our families and communities.

I'll tell him it's plain immoral to side with price-gouging health insurance and pharmaceutical giants over the interests of the American people.

And I'll tell George W. Bush that when it comes to speaking for rural and small-town America, he's all hat and no cattle.

The election of 2004 is about much more than politics or party. It's about our future, about what kind of country we want to be. It's about you - and your children and grandchildren, about whether we build on the communities and the values that built our nation.

And it will be a clear choice. On one side will be a course that abandons rural America and small-town America in exchange for the enrichment of a few narrow interests at the top of the pile. That is the course of George W. Bush.

Our campaign offers a very different choice. A choice based on hope and opportunity. A choice based on time-honored values. A choice built on the great people who built a great nation.

With your help, we will offer the American people that choice next year, and we will give new hope, new opportunity and a new voice to regular Americans and to the real America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.