Edwards tells difficult truths (great piece by E.J. Dionne)

Edwards tells difficult truths
Democratic candidate says he has higher priorities than a balanced budget
By E.J. Dionne--Washington Post
Saturday, January 20, 2007
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WASHINGTON - Ask yourself which politician you trust more.
On the one side, a president who campaigned on a balanced-budget pledge, then dug the country hundreds of billions of dollars deeper into debt with huge tax cuts and an unpaid-for war, and now promises a balanced budget four years after he leaves office.
On the other side, a former senator who says that while he wants to contain the deficit, he has higher priorities than a perfectly balanced budget, specifically universal health insurance coverage and substantial investments in alternative energy.
That is the choice offered by George W. Bush and John Edwards, the N.C. Democrat whose left-of-center presidential candidacy will have the salutary effect of challenging Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to respond with specifics of their own.
Edwards' ideas on the budget have the additional virtue of reminding us that the argument over arriving at a balanced budget by 2012 is largely phony. The real issue, given the burgeoning costs of health care and the retirement of the baby boomers, is how to put policies in place now that achieve sustainable fiscal balance -- meaning low if not zero deficits -- over the next 30 years.
What needs to be done? Hint No. 1: Extending President Bush's tax cuts to eternity will make the long-term problem much worse. Hint No. 2: The hardest part will be how to meet the fiscal need to rein in health costs and the social need to get health insurance to everyone. Hint No. 3: Most Democrats don't like to talk about it, but taxes are going to have to go up on somebody.
Edwards, at least, is willing to say which taxes he would raise to keep the deficit from going through the roof. He would start by eliminating Bush's tax cuts for the top 2 percent of income earners, which he defines roughly as those earning more than $180,000 to $200,000 a year.
In an interview this week, he argued it's wrong to tax income from work at a higher rate than income from capital -- an extension of his long-standing theme that the country should not value "wealth over work." He also favors a windfall-profits tax on oil companies.
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Read the rest here.

John Edwards for President 2008

:kick:

:kick:and:thumbsup:!!!

:kick: John Edwards for President 2008