- About Us
- News
- Events
- Media
- Issues
- Blog
- Take Action
- Groups
- Contribute
Manchester Union Leader
May 21, 2007
CLAREMONT -- Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards told Claremont voters yesterday that he has a plan for revitalizing lackluster local economies like the one that exists in their city today.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, said the government can help low-income communities by increasing minimum wage, expanding earned income tax credits, finding new ways to make college accessible and by making it easier for workers to unionize.
About 75 people gathered to hear Edwards at the Earl Bourdon Senior Center, part of a three-stop tour of western New Hampshire.
In addition to the struggle to stabilize the local economy, voters voiced concerns over the pervasive pessimism surrounding the future of the nation.
"I've basically really lost faith in my own country, and I have a lot of friends who have, too," said Gloria Allison. "I take this next election very seriously." Edwards encouraged voters to rally for change on the local level and not to let Presidential candidates feed them "highfalutin" proposals.
"Don't let them get away with rhetoric," he said. "Rhetoric doesn't solve anything." Edwards said restoring the United States to a positive force that other nations want to follow would be his top priority if he were elected.
"They think we're a bully," he said. "They think we're selfish. They don't want to follow the United States of America, and it's completely understandable." Calling the war in Iraq "a bleeding sore," Edwards said finding a political solution to the turmoil in the Middle East is the first step in rebuilding America's status as a world leader.
"Until there's a political solution, there can't be a solution in Iraq," he said.
Were he President right now, Edwards said he would immediately pull 50,000 troops out of the north and south of Iraq, and then re-deploy troops to other areas of the Middle East over a 10-month period.
At the town-meeting style gathering, Edwards also discussed his plan to replace the nation's "dysfunctional" health care system with one that would provide affordable coverage to everyone. He said he would require all employers to either offer employees health insurance plans or pay into a national health care fund that would provide either government-subsidized or private health insurance to workers. Insurance companies would not be able to deny or penalize people for "pre-existing conditions," Edwards said.
and all health insurance plans would cover long-term, chronic, preventive, and vision care.
The health care plan would cost between $90 and $120 billion annually, and to help pay for it, Edwards said he would "roll back Bush's tax cuts for people who make more than $200,000 a year." Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and eliminating poverty were also high on Edwards' list of priorities. And although the issues are important, he said, so is character.
"I think we desperately need a President that we can trust, even if you disagree with them," he said.
Q&A: Educational Disparity
John Edwards answers a question about educational disparity at Hanover Middle School in Hanover, N.H. on September 27, 2007
Paid for by John Edwards for President Contributions to John Edwards for President are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes.
© 2006 John Edwards for President, 410 Market Street, Suite 400, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
