Thank Heavens Someone Is Noticing This
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Democrats | Featured Stories — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Anyone else feel like telling John Edwards to dial back the spending a bit?
More after the jump . . .
Presidential candidate John Edwards is offering more policy proposals than any other candidate in the primary and his ideas are winning loud applause from Democratic audiences.
The question is whether other voters will cheer when they see the price tag - more than $125 billion a year.
Edwards is quick to acknowledge his spending on health care, energy and poverty reduction comes at a cost, with more plans to come. On Friday, he proposed an $8 billion college scholarship program, an outgrowth of his ``College for Everyone'' idea in 2005.
All told, Edwards' proposals would equal more than $1 trillion if he could get them enacted into law and operational during two White House terms.
To put the number in perspective, President Bush has dedicated more than $1.8 trillion to tax cuts. The cost of the Iraq war is nearing $450 billion. And this year's federal budget is about $2.8 trillion.
Edwards says fixing the country's problems takes precedence over eliminating the deficit or offering middle-class tax relief like he proposed when running for president in the last election.
``I think for me, as opposed to the additional tax relief for the middle class, what's more important is to give them relief from the extraordinary cost of health care, from gasoline prices, the things that they spend money on every single day that are escalating dramatically,'' Edwards said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
To pay for some of his priorities, Edwards would roll back Bush's tax cuts on Americans making more than $200,000 a year. He also said he would consider raising capital gains taxes to help fund his plans and raise or eliminate the $90,000 cap on individual earnings subject to Social Security taxes to help cover the projected shortfall in the system.
Edwards also has proposed spending cuts such as cutting subsidies for the banks that make student loans for a savings of $6 billion a year. He would also save money by trimming the number of Department of Housing and Urban Development employees, negotiating Medicare prescription drug prices and cutting agricultural subsidies for corporate farms, although the campaign did not yet have estimates of how much that would bring in.
Edwards' ideas have already opened him to accusations of being just another tax-and-spend liberal, a label put on Walter Mondale, the 1984 Democratic presidential nominee who said he would raise taxes and then lost 49 states to President Reagan.
Gosh. Can't imagine why.
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Thank Heavens Someone Is Noticing This 6 Comments (0 topical, 6 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
hang with the Heggie crowd.. Fortress needed (and needs) someone to run political cover for them - he was available. Edwards' isn't a quant or even a decent spin guy - selling a rural jury is a bit different than pitching nine figure investors and then delivering results.
He's got the political connections with the DNC anti-business crowd though.
You don't play in the major leagues just to learn the game..
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"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
"-$5 billion in foreign aid to combat international poverty, including $3 billion to help pay for primary education for every child in the world." Guess who will administer this program? Everyone who gets hired to administer this program should be a friend of whoever is paying the bills,right?
Perhaps we can double or triple the cost of an education again.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
The college I first went to has had its cost of tuition nearly double since when I attended there, and that's been less than a decade! Oy vey.
"To all those whom I have not yet offended: Please stand by, and I will work to remedy the situation as soon as possible."
Patiently waiting for a Fred Thompson / John Engler ticket.
I think it has been apparent for some time that John Edwards intends to institute some very high-cost social programs. And I see no indication that he wants to incorporate any market elements into his plans, which is something that I believe Clinton and Obama have considered.
There may not be a good choice in the democratic primary, but I think there is a bad choice, and that's Edwards. I hate to say this because I think he's a nice guy and very well-intentioned, but he's someone who shouldn't be President. He doesn't have the political instincts necessary for the job (he's already made a number mistakes and it's still very early) and, as you mentioned, he would probably significantly increase our national debt/taxes. In addition to that, he wants to leave Iraq with no residual military force. George Stephanopoulus asked him what he would do if our withdrawal of every single American troop led to a genocide and he sort of waffled, saying he would consult with others and decide what to do should that happen. Not good, to say the least. Clinton and Obama have said they would keep a residual force. Though far from ideal, that should at least prevent something like genocide from happening. No residual force, incidentally, is also Richardson's position, which in my opinion is a major negative for someone who has some positive attributes -- though I hear the folks at DailyKos like it.
Mr. John 'There are two Americas and I live on the greener pasture' Edwards is an embarrassment. A two bit ambulance chaser who got involved with a hedge fund to learn how to combat poverty. Someone forgot to tell him that the fund-Fortress Investment Group-funded many of the subprime loans. While the big media machine was all over the predictable subprime meltdown, very few politicos have called for a bail out. So yeah Edwards learned a few things about poverty and finances-how to profit from them!
It is the AmericanYank's wish and answer to his prayers if after he doesn't receive the Dem nomination, which is the most likely scenario, he will just go away. I am sure with his fund experience limo riding liberal George Soros could find him a spot at his NYC office.
AmericanYank.com