Edwards: My Plan to Stop Corporate Abuses

From the Wall Street Journal
Jan 2, 08



For the rest:
http://www.johnedwards.com/news/headlines/20080102-wsj/

:)

It is not race, gender, age that is the root of our problems. It is, and has long been, CLASS WARFARE.

I want a leader in THAT fight.

Is why none of the other Dems talk about this. Why aren't they? It must be because the American people are too dumb to demand real change.

Maybe what's best to say we are, as a group, uninformed. And who can blame them?

is so distorted.

As has been pointed out, his record on trade is the same as Kennedy's.

I fear that some of it may be just groupthink... that's just anecdotal, based on conversations I've had with people IRL...

NOT ONE of the average American voting populace will EVER look at Edwards voting record, they are too lazy. The only reason he is below in the polls is because the media is promoting Clinton and Obama. I just watched a clip where they showed Edwards getting higher marks than Obama and Clinton, and guess what, they only mentioned Edwards a couple of times but Clinton and Obama many more times, and ended the piece talking about Clinton and Obama. And another time when a focus group said they preferred Edwards, the talking head said, but how do they feel about Clinton and Obama.

Edwards is being left out of the conversation, is always touted as leaving the race and when a clip is shown with him in it, they most often don't even mention his name. They want the historic race of a woman and a black man fighting it out. On the repub side though, they are more even handed, mentioning 4 or 5 candidates, big difference.

zalinda

I hope more dems saw his performance in SC and get invested in his campaign for his message, and ignore poll numbers & $$$.

Thanks. :hi:

way way back, he was more of a contender, then they found a "scream" they could beat to death. Between his house, his haircuts, and his "dying" wife, he took a huge hit in the polls. Whenever he was mentioned in the media, he was mentioned not just by name, but also with the label "a millionaire lawyer". My guess is that they are still doing that. They are like Mr. Subliminal with that message "and in other news John Edwards (millionair lawyer (phony)) ..." Now they probably add another subtle message - "distant 3rd". That is, he's not even in contention, so why support him since he does not have a chance?

We need to return to our populist roots if we expect to get back on top and repair the damage. Going off as GOP Lite is just sad and I think too many pols go along because they are:
a) lazy
b) too unsure of themselves to stand up for real values = COWARDS
c) owned by the Fat Cats and willing to go along and be the sparing partners of their GOP counterparts, but never get into a real fight.

LAZY cowards who sold out cheap.

When WE lead, the leaders will follow

Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. Either Congress does what WE think best, or we put in a Congress that will.

edit: typo

How much money is enough?

The economic inequity in this country is getting scary.

I think John Edwards will be the first president to address this issue since FDR.

started by Regan and absolutley spun out of control by Bush?

De-Regulation is at the root of all this financial crisis.

he first thing we need to do is to make affordable, high-quality health care a part of the social compact. Not only are health-care costs putting a huge strain on American families and our competitiveness in the global economy, but a system that leaves 47 million Americans without health care is a moral disgrace. As president, universal health care will be my number one domestic priority.

Second, we also need to adapt retirement savings to the modern work environment. In the past, it was common for people to stay with the same company their entire career, and so it made sense for pensions to be connected to employers. Today, the average worker will probably hold jobs with multiple companies.

As president, I will create a new universal retirement account requiring every business to automatically enroll its workers in at least one plan: a traditional pension, a 401(k) or an IRA. Workers will be able to choose to have their contributions deducted automatically from their paychecks, and they will be able to carry these accounts with them from job to job.

We can't allow fundamentally healthy companies to go into bankruptcy just to avoid keeping their promises to employees, or to emerge from bankruptcy with millions for executives and nothing for workers. As president, I will ensure that corporations honor the pension promises they've made to workers, by giving workers a claim for lost pensions, just like lost wages.

Third, our companies should be run for the benefit of workers and shareholders as well as insiders. Today, too many companies in America are putting far too much of their earnings into excessive CEO and executive pay, when this money could be going to increased worker salaries, better benefits and investments in plants and equipment.

As president, I will immediately cap untaxed deferred compensation for executives. I will also give shareholders new rights and responsibilities so that they can call shareholder meetings, remove directors who aren't acting responsibly, and have a say on executive pay.

Let's let Edwards do it.

I have health insurance through my employer. I pay about $7,500.00 per year in health insurance premiums. How does Edwards’ plan for health insurance lower my yearly premium or the premium paid by my fellow workers? Looking at the details of his plan it appears that rather than lowering my premiums, they will increase, as someone will be paying for those not currently insured. Will my health insurance premiums go down or up under Edwards’ health plan?

The second section of your description of the Plan is a bit confusing. Anyone in America, of any age, employed or unemployed can open an IRA or a 401k account and make contributions to it on any schedule they like. All IRAs and 401ks can be rolled over from employer to employer. He seems to be proposing something that already exists and that millions of people are already a part of. Is there something new here I am missing?

In the third section he says he will impose a “cap” on “untaxed deferred compensation for executives”. Understand he is not referring to executive salary here but rather executive retirement funds. Americans can defer (untaxed) a maximum of $15,500.00 per year (more if you are over 50) for retirement but executives have no limit on the amount of tax deferred retirement funds. Edwards’ proposal here is right on the money (so to speak) and long, long, long overdue. However, I think the Congress will pass this legislation within the next few months (it has already gone through the House and Senate committees) which will take a bit of thunder away from Edwards’ proposal.

Download the 80 page plan. It's not perfect, it doesn't promise perfection for everyone, but for the most part, he's the only candidate paying real attention to these issues.

Or you can just see what the others come up with after they finish reading the plan.

http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/

You are unable to answer my simple questions.

The answers are there. Go find them for yourself. And if you can not find what you are looking for, then do something about it. It's not my job to take you by the hand.

It is about the huge sums of $$$ that Hillary and Obama have accepted from the people who help maintain this same system.

:kick:

:kick:

and what a sacrifice he is making for this country.