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Patriot Games
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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/5/11/104902.shtml?s=ic
Friday, May 11, 2007 10:47 a.m. EDT
John Edwards' Proposals Could Cost $1 Trillion
Presidential candidate John Edwards is offering more policy proposals than
any other candidate in the primary and his ideas are winning loud applause
from Democratic audiences.
The question is whether other voters will cheer when they see the price
tag - more than $125 billion a year.
Edwards is quick to acknowledge his spending on health care, energy and
poverty reduction comes at a cost, with more plans to come. All told, his
proposals would equal more than $1 trillion if he could get them enacted
into law and operational during two White House terms.
To put the number in perspective, President Bush has dedicated more than
$1.8 trillion to tax cuts. The cost of the Iraq war is nearing $450 billion.
And this year's federal budget is about $2.8 trillion.
Edwards says fixing the country's problems takes precedence over eliminating
the deficit or offering middle-class tax relief like he proposed when
running for president in the last election.
"I think for me, as opposed to the additional tax relief for the middle
class, what's more important is to give them relief from the extraordinary
cost of health care, from gasoline prices, the things that they spend money
on every single day that are escalating dramatically," Edwards said in a
recent interview with The Associated Press.
To pay for some of his priorities, Edwards would roll back Bush's tax cuts
on Americans making more than $200,000 a year. He also said he would
consider raising capital gains taxes to help fund his plans and raise or
eliminate the $90,000 cap on individual earnings subject to Social Security
taxes to help cover the projected shortfall in the system.
Edwards also has proposed spending cuts such as cutting subsidies for the
banks that make student loans for a savings of $6 billion a year. He would
also save money by trimming the number of Department of Housing and Urban
Development employees, negotiating Medicare prescription drug prices and
cutting agricultural subsidies for corporate farms, although the campaign
did not yet have estimates of how much that would bring in.
Edwards' ideas have already opened him to accusations of being just another
tax-and-spend liberal, a label put on Walter Mondale, the 1984 Democratic
presidential nominee who said he would raise taxes and then lost 49 states
to President Reagan.
The Republican National Committee accused Edwards of making his first
campaign promise to raise taxes. "Edwards' America Will Pay More Taxes,"
said a news release from the conservative Club for Growth on the day Edwards
announced a plan for universal health care that would cost $90 billion to
$120 billion.
The cost estimate came from Ken Thorpe, an Emory University researcher who
provides outside analysis on health care plans for presidential candidates.
The estimate he gave the Edwards campaign was $105 billion to $145 billion
in 2010 dollars - the year Edwards' plan would go into full effect. However,
the campaign changed it to 2007 dollars.
His plan would require employers to provide insurance or contribute to the
coverage of every worker - and it would require every citizen to get
coverage. The government would pay for insurance for lower income Americans
and tax credits to help subsidize what other families would have to pay for
coverage, funded by abolishing Bush's tax cuts for people who make more than
$200,000 a year and by having the government collect more back taxes.
Among other annual spending:
$15 billion-$20 billion to help achieve his goal of ending poverty in the
U.S. within 30 years. That includes $4.2 billion to increase the earned
income tax credit, which refunds payroll and income taxes to low-income
people; $4 billion to create 1 million short-term jobs to help the
unemployed climb out of poverty; and $3 billion for $500 work bonds to help
low-income workers save.
$13 billion energy fund to develop and encourage more efficiency and
renewable energy use. That includes $3 billion in tax credits for the
production of renewable energy and $1 billion to help the U.S. auto industry
modernize with the latest fuel-efficient technology. He said the fund would
be paid for by selling $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and by
ending $3 billion in subsidies for big oil companies.
$1 billion rural recovery plan with initiatives like increased investment in
rural small businesses, education, health care and resources to fight
methamphetamine abuse.
$5 billion in foreign aid to combat international poverty, including $3
billion to help pay for primary education for every child in the world.
Edwards also has promoted other ideas he has in the works, such as an
education plan that includes his goal of eliminating financial barriers to
college, a border security plan and federal spending on stem cells. But he's
yet to announce details or costs.
Still, Edwards has been the most forthcoming Democratic candidate when it
comes to describing the details of how he would like to run the country. His
chief rivals - Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama - have offered
few hints about their policy proposals.
The ideas are the centerpiece of Edwards' plan to position himself as the
party's true progressive in the primary. He hopes the big ideas will attract
the liberal Iowa caucus goers, online energy and labor endorsements that
he's counting on to propel him to the nomination, said Democratic strategist
Chris Lehane.
"If the costs become a real issue, it will be a good problem to have for him
because the only folks likely to make a real argument against it would be
the Republicans, which means his strategy succeeded and he was the nominee,"
said Lehane, who worked in the Clinton White House and for Al Gore's
candidacy in 2000.
Edwards said his spending proposals also would take precedence over
eliminating the more than $200 billion deficit. He said he would work to
lower the deficit and would not let it grow.
"Those things cost money, and there's a balance between that and the need to
reduce the deficit," said the former North Carolina senator. "And so the
threshold question is where is the priority? ... If we're going to do those
things, I think it's very difficult to eliminate the deficit - in the short
term, impossible."
He said he supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's requirement that
legislation to cut taxes or boost federal benefit programs must be paid for
with tax increases or other benefit cuts. But Edwards has yet to explain how
he would pay for all his proposals. That will come later this year when he
offers his tax plan, the campaign said.
"There's definitely a lack of numbers in some of his proposals," said Paul
Weinstein Jr., chief operating officer at the centrist Progressive Policy
Institute. "I think you should be commended for wanting to provide universal
health care and to eliminate poverty. I think it would be more legitimate if
he would identify some of the ways in which he would pay for these things."
Friday, May 11, 2007 10:47 a.m. EDT
John Edwards' Proposals Could Cost $1 Trillion
Presidential candidate John Edwards is offering more policy proposals than
any other candidate in the primary and his ideas are winning loud applause
from Democratic audiences.
The question is whether other voters will cheer when they see the price
tag - more than $125 billion a year.
Edwards is quick to acknowledge his spending on health care, energy and
poverty reduction comes at a cost, with more plans to come. All told, his
proposals would equal more than $1 trillion if he could get them enacted
into law and operational during two White House terms.
To put the number in perspective, President Bush has dedicated more than
$1.8 trillion to tax cuts. The cost of the Iraq war is nearing $450 billion.
And this year's federal budget is about $2.8 trillion.
Edwards says fixing the country's problems takes precedence over eliminating
the deficit or offering middle-class tax relief like he proposed when
running for president in the last election.
"I think for me, as opposed to the additional tax relief for the middle
class, what's more important is to give them relief from the extraordinary
cost of health care, from gasoline prices, the things that they spend money
on every single day that are escalating dramatically," Edwards said in a
recent interview with The Associated Press.
To pay for some of his priorities, Edwards would roll back Bush's tax cuts
on Americans making more than $200,000 a year. He also said he would
consider raising capital gains taxes to help fund his plans and raise or
eliminate the $90,000 cap on individual earnings subject to Social Security
taxes to help cover the projected shortfall in the system.
Edwards also has proposed spending cuts such as cutting subsidies for the
banks that make student loans for a savings of $6 billion a year. He would
also save money by trimming the number of Department of Housing and Urban
Development employees, negotiating Medicare prescription drug prices and
cutting agricultural subsidies for corporate farms, although the campaign
did not yet have estimates of how much that would bring in.
Edwards' ideas have already opened him to accusations of being just another
tax-and-spend liberal, a label put on Walter Mondale, the 1984 Democratic
presidential nominee who said he would raise taxes and then lost 49 states
to President Reagan.
The Republican National Committee accused Edwards of making his first
campaign promise to raise taxes. "Edwards' America Will Pay More Taxes,"
said a news release from the conservative Club for Growth on the day Edwards
announced a plan for universal health care that would cost $90 billion to
$120 billion.
The cost estimate came from Ken Thorpe, an Emory University researcher who
provides outside analysis on health care plans for presidential candidates.
The estimate he gave the Edwards campaign was $105 billion to $145 billion
in 2010 dollars - the year Edwards' plan would go into full effect. However,
the campaign changed it to 2007 dollars.
His plan would require employers to provide insurance or contribute to the
coverage of every worker - and it would require every citizen to get
coverage. The government would pay for insurance for lower income Americans
and tax credits to help subsidize what other families would have to pay for
coverage, funded by abolishing Bush's tax cuts for people who make more than
$200,000 a year and by having the government collect more back taxes.
Among other annual spending:
$15 billion-$20 billion to help achieve his goal of ending poverty in the
U.S. within 30 years. That includes $4.2 billion to increase the earned
income tax credit, which refunds payroll and income taxes to low-income
people; $4 billion to create 1 million short-term jobs to help the
unemployed climb out of poverty; and $3 billion for $500 work bonds to help
low-income workers save.
$13 billion energy fund to develop and encourage more efficiency and
renewable energy use. That includes $3 billion in tax credits for the
production of renewable energy and $1 billion to help the U.S. auto industry
modernize with the latest fuel-efficient technology. He said the fund would
be paid for by selling $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and by
ending $3 billion in subsidies for big oil companies.
$1 billion rural recovery plan with initiatives like increased investment in
rural small businesses, education, health care and resources to fight
methamphetamine abuse.
$5 billion in foreign aid to combat international poverty, including $3
billion to help pay for primary education for every child in the world.
Edwards also has promoted other ideas he has in the works, such as an
education plan that includes his goal of eliminating financial barriers to
college, a border security plan and federal spending on stem cells. But he's
yet to announce details or costs.
Still, Edwards has been the most forthcoming Democratic candidate when it
comes to describing the details of how he would like to run the country. His
chief rivals - Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama - have offered
few hints about their policy proposals.
The ideas are the centerpiece of Edwards' plan to position himself as the
party's true progressive in the primary. He hopes the big ideas will attract
the liberal Iowa caucus goers, online energy and labor endorsements that
he's counting on to propel him to the nomination, said Democratic strategist
Chris Lehane.
"If the costs become a real issue, it will be a good problem to have for him
because the only folks likely to make a real argument against it would be
the Republicans, which means his strategy succeeded and he was the nominee,"
said Lehane, who worked in the Clinton White House and for Al Gore's
candidacy in 2000.
Edwards said his spending proposals also would take precedence over
eliminating the more than $200 billion deficit. He said he would work to
lower the deficit and would not let it grow.
"Those things cost money, and there's a balance between that and the need to
reduce the deficit," said the former North Carolina senator. "And so the
threshold question is where is the priority? ... If we're going to do those
things, I think it's very difficult to eliminate the deficit - in the short
term, impossible."
He said he supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's requirement that
legislation to cut taxes or boost federal benefit programs must be paid for
with tax increases or other benefit cuts. But Edwards has yet to explain how
he would pay for all his proposals. That will come later this year when he
offers his tax plan, the campaign said.
"There's definitely a lack of numbers in some of his proposals," said Paul
Weinstein Jr., chief operating officer at the centrist Progressive Policy
Institute. "I think you should be commended for wanting to provide universal
health care and to eliminate poverty. I think it would be more legitimate if
he would identify some of the ways in which he would pay for these things."
