Edwards wants WPA style jobs program
From a Time article, Can Poverty Define John Edwards?
[N]o other candidate is talking about poverty the way Edwards does - at length and to the exclusion of all other subjects for three long days. From time to time he tries to link the problems of the poor to the vulnerability of the middle class at large, touting, for instance, his plan for universal health care. ("It's not just about the poor," he says in one speech during the tour. "Everybody's at risk. Everybody's vulnerable.") But mostly - remarkably - he avoids that broader argument and focuses on costly programs to help the truly impoverished: one million WPA-style "stepping-stone" jobs, guaranteed paid sick leave for everyone, a minimum wage that isn't just raised to $9.50 but indexed so it goes up automatically.
The $400 hair cut and the 28,000 square foot home don't do much for his credibility, but I like the sound of that program. It's expensive, though - $20 billion. We could get that easy, though, if we slashed farm commodities and drug war funding.
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Comments
Edwards's class-fear-mongering is a remarkably lame rhetorical brew, but I'd be all about a Works program & ending the phony War on Some Drugs.
Posted by: barabajagal | July 19, 2007 9:35 AM
Hey B, I don't see much appeal in Edwards myself, but I do like the sounds of the WPA-style jobs program. I don't understand why he's still a contender in the race. He doesn't appeal to me as a President or Vice-President. But I'm glad to see him raising poverty as a national issue. We've been ignoring it for too long.
Posted by: Mike | July 19, 2007 12:07 PM