[bill1952]

the federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts for low-income people, mandate a minimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housing vouchers for the poor. a government-funded public higher education program called "College for Everyone."

[OldArmy52]

Edwards is too misery.
Cheapskate even.
He should promise $100/hr minimum wage.
12 weeks employer-paid annual leave.
Mandatory health insurance for all, legal or not, young and old, to include AIDS treatment and sex change operations for all.
Also the usual Dem civil liberties measures of ban all guns and sharp knives, raise gas taxes by $5/gal, etc.
Did I forget anything?
Oh yes, raise taxes on the top 90% of Americans, and level annual 10% surcharge taxes against all private pension funds to help bail out Social Security.
Shouldn’t affect the Economy should it?
People won’t like it? Ok, then ban anti-Government talk and thought.

[andy58-in-nh]

Socialist politicians used to call for those kinds of things because they really believed they would work. Now, only the truly stupid would do so. Edwards isn't stupid: he just recognizes the value of buying the majority's votes with the promise of the minority's money. Only academic socialists are so willfully dumb as to believe that poverty can be "cured" by authorizing the government to steal from the productive. Paul Krugman of the New York Times has made a career of it.

[oyez]

John Edwards says if he's elected president, he'll institute a New Deal-like suite of programs to fight poverty

We already got one. Its our educational system. Anybody that wants an education can get one. Anyone with an education doesn't have to worry about minimum wage. I've seen people with their backs to the wall earn BS degrees from decent college with the programs we now have. We don't need any stinking new programs.