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Edwards Delivers Speech On Lifting Up America's Middle Class

December 18, 2007, Ames, IA

On day seven of the Main Street Express bus tour, Senator John Edwards delivered a major speech on his bold vision to lift up middle-class families and make sure that all Americans have a fair shot at the American Dream. At this critical time in our nation's history, with the economic divide wider now than at any other time in the last thirty years, Edwards unveiled his Middle Class Rising agenda that will help build One America where the middle class prospers and all hardworking Americans can find good jobs, save for the future, and have guaranteed health care and retirement security.

"America was built on an idea--that all of us are equal," Edwards said in a town hall in Ames. "The idea that how hard you work, and what kind of choices you make will determine the kind of life you build, and what you pass onto your children--but not the circumstances you're born into, never that. The greatness of America is that promise--that every generation will leave its children a better life. That is our social compact with the middle class --the promise that if you work hard and do what's right, you'll be able to build a better life for yourself and your family. But today, that compact is being threatened.

"Here's what's happened," Edwards continued. "Corporate greed and political calculation have taken over our government and sold out the middle class. Our government is selling out their future at the command of lobbyists and their corporate clients and we have to rise up together and stop it.

"We need a president who will take these powers on and fight to get you your voice back, and your government back. We need a president who is going to fight every day to make sure that all Americans can find good jobs, save for the future, and be guaranteed health care and retirement security. We need a president who is going to lift up the middle class."

Because of corporate greed and a broken system in Washington, almost half of all economic growth over the past 20 years has gone to the top one percent of American families. Middle-class incomes have stagnated for the past seven years, the number of Americans living in poverty is growing every year, and families are working longer hours, but finding it harder to get by.

To address this growing inequality and help the middle class rise again, Edwards' Middle Class Rising agenda will:

 

• Create good jobs: Edwards will invest in renewable sources of energy to create new industries and at least 1 million new, good-paying jobs. He will pursue a trade policy that ends tax loopholes for companies that send American jobs overseas, and end the NAFTA trade model. Edwards will also raise the minimum wage, reform our tax code, build career ladders, and strengthen organized labor.
• Give middle-class families the tools to build a secure financial future: Edwards will create Universal Retirement Accounts that people can take with them from job to job, and to respond to the mortgage crisis, he will pass a tough new national law to prevent predatory lending abuses. Edwards will also reign in credit card and other abusive lending practices by creating a new consumer watchdog agency.
• Remove the burdens that are weighing families down: Edwards will help families afford rising home heating costs, make sure that college is affordable for everyone, so that every child can have a fair shot at the American Dream, help people balance their work and home lives by making sure that workplace policies are keeping up with changes in the economy, through expanding early education programs, providing paid leave, including sick leave, to all workers, and expanding job protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• Create universal health care in America: Edwards' top domestic priority will be making sure that every man, woman and child in America is covered with high-quality care.
  

Edwards was joined in Ames by acclaimed actor Kevin Bacon, who also traveled with the campaign yesterday as part of Edwards' Main Street Express bus tour across the state. During the eight-day tour, Edwards is highlighting his plans to fight for regular families like the ones he grew up with in his small, rural hometown. Later today, Edwards will hold events in Colfax and Ottumwa, and on Monday, he will wrap up the tour with events in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and a finale event in Davenport.

Join the PDA Edwards conference call:

When: Wednesday December 19, 9:00 PM EST, 6:00 PM PST
Call-in Number: (616) 712-8000
Access Code: 1085662#
For more informaytion on organizing in PDA for this campaign or to RSVP: Edwards@pdamerica.org