Responses Submitted by Sen. John Edwards

 

Many neighborhoods were once segregated by race; now segregation by wealth is common, often with a racial dimension. If we truly believe that we are all equal, then we should live together too. We could all see the problems of concentrated poverty after Katrina, but the truth is that nearly every major American city has
similar neighborhoods that remain unseen. The federal government has built public housing in the worst neighborhoods and overlooked the need for affordable housing in the suburbs. These policies cut willing workers off from entry-level jobs, which are often created in the suburbs, far from public transportation. And they keep low-income children far from good schools.

 

A second problem is that incomes for most families are stagnant. There is so much we can and must do to address inequality in this country. I am grateful that the remainder of this questionnaire gives me the opportunity to discuss my plans to build One America, where everyone has a chance to succeed.

 

I believe we should radically overhaul HUD in three big steps. First, we need to integrate our neighborhoods economically. If conservatives really believed in markets, they'd join us in a more radical and more sensible solution: creating 1 million more housing vouchers for working families over the next five years. Done right, vouchers can enable people to vote with their feet to demand safe communities with good schools.

We can take the opportunity to give more authority to cities and states to tackle housing problems in their own regions. They will be responsible for taking a regional approach — including both cities and suburbs — and creating affordable housing near jobs and good schools.

 

I will expand the HOPE VI program to revitalize devastated neighborhoods, while making sure that current residents benefit. And we should consider conditioning federal housing and transportation funds on state and local efforts to create effective transportation policies and reform zoning and housing regulations to allow economic integration.

 

Finally, work should be at the center of our housing policy just as it is at the center of our other social policies. We should attach a contract to new housing vouchers: if they don't already have jobs, recipients must work toward independence, and in return we will help them earn more and save more.

A similar program is already working for 75,000 families today.

 

For more than 20 years, Democrats have talked about universal health care. And for more than 20 years, we've gotten nowhere, because lobbyists for the big insurance companies, drug companies and HMOs spent millions to block real reform. Instead, they've grudgingly allowed incremental measures that do nothing but tinker around the edges --or worse, they've hijacked reform to improve their own bottom line.

 So today, more Americans go without health care than ever before. Instead of prescription drug reform that brought down the cost of drugs, the lobbyists for the big drug companies got us a prescription drug bill that boosts drug company profits but doesn't cut patient costs.

 

Private insurers have high overhead costs, which average 12 percent, compared to 4 percent for Medicare.

Health insurance plans operated by a government are often able to achieve lower administrative costs by saving on advertising, underwriting and claims processing.

Failures to coordinate care, provide preventive care, implement information technology and reduce medical errors also add unnecessary costs.

 For example, although the 23 percent of Medicare beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions account for 68 percent of costs, Medicare makes almost no effort to coordinate care to ensure that doctors do not provide duplicative treatments and do not unknowingly undercut each other's efforts.

Less than 5 percent of the $1.4 trillion spent on U.S. health care in 2002 went toward preventive care. According to a study by the Rand Corporation, Electronic medical records could save up to $162 billion annually: $81 billion in increased prevention and chronic disease management, $77 billion in increased
efficiency, and $4 billion in increased safety standards. Better, more consistent performance could save 100,000 to 150,000 lives and $50 billion to $100 billion a year.

 

To fix this crisis, we don't need an incremental shift, we need a fundamental change. We need true universal health care. We need to end the game in Washington and build One America, with one health system where
every American can get decent, affordable health care. I have a bold plan to stand up to the big drug and insurance companies and finally guarantee true universal health care while cutting costs for families and employers.

 

Under my plan, businesses will either cover their employees or help pay their premiums. The government will make insurance affordable through new tax credits and by leading the way toward more cost-effective care.

 

New “Health Care Markets” will give families and businesses purchasing power and a choice of quality plans, including one public plan. Over time, the system may evolve toward a single-payer approach if individuals and businesses prefer the public plan.

 

Finally, once these steps have been taken, all American residents will be
required to take responsibility and get insurance. Families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price, and families that have insurance will pay
less and get more security and choices. Employers will find it cheaper and easier to insure their workers. My plan will save an average family up to $2,500 a year and eliminate $130 billion of wasted health care spending each year.

 

We need to be honest about the cost of universal health care. My plan costs $90 billion to $120 billion a year. I will pay for it by repealing President Bush’s income tax cuts for Americans who make more than $200,000 per year. Others may disagree, but I believe affordable, guaranteed health care for working people is more important than tax breaks for the wealthy.

 

I also believe you can’t say you have a serious plan for health care unless you have a plan to actually pay for it. My plan also makes the system more efficient. Today, thirty cents of every dollar spent on health care goes toward administration and system waste. I will require insurers to spend at least 85 percent of their premiums on patient care so insurance companies can’t pocket the savings from reform instead of delivering more to patients.

 

It’s time for a new era in chronic and preventive care. Helping patients and providers manage chronic illnesses and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations can improve health, while reducing health care costs. We can save lives
and dollars by investing in technology, providing incentives for quality, reducing medical errors and creating a knowledge bank that makes doctors aware of preventable mistakes.

 

Immigrant & Refugee Concerns

 

I believe immigration – and immigrants – are central to the story of America. I grew up in a small town in North Carolina, and my dad worked in mills all his life. And we went to that town so that my father could work hard and try to build a better life for myself and my family, just as millions of Latino families are trying to
do today. In fact, that small town in rural North Carolina is now half Latino. And those Latino families that came to Robbins, North Carolina, came there for the same reason my father came there: to work hard, support their families and try to build a better life for themselves and their children.

 

But they're up against huge obstacles. Just a few months ago, I was in Canton, Mississippi as part of a poverty tour, and I met with poultry workers from a poultry plant there. One of them was a man named Daniel who had been badly hurt on the job, and because of his injuries, he wasn't able to work. But when he asked about trying to get health care or workers' compensation, the first question they asked him was, “What's your immigration status?”

This is a perfect example of what's wrong with Washington and why we need comprehensive immigration reform.

 

Our immigration system needs a fundamental overhaul. The first step in overhauling the immigration system is to secure our borders and stop illegal trafficking. We need to increase the number of border patrol agents and
invest in surveillance technology.

 

We also need to crack down on employers that employ undocumented
immigrants and, in many cases, abuse their workers.

 

People who are already here should have the opportunity to earn American citizenship. Before earning citizenship, immigrants must avoid a criminal record, pay a fine in recognition that they came here illegally, and learn English–the surest path to success in this country.

We will all benefit by giving children who grew up here the opportunity to go to college and build a better life.

I cosponsored the DREAM Act when I was in the Senate to give young people who consider the United States their home, have worked hard in school and have stayed out of trouble, the chance to go to college and pursue their dreams.

 

We need to do more to help Latin America on the path to development. While some Latin American countries are growing with great success, in other countries instability has occurred because of deep inequality, poor social and economic development and weak institutions.

 Many Latin American countries are stuck in a “slow growth trap,” which results from the combination of low education, weak investment in technology, low savings rates and tax collection and inequality. Problems in education play an especially important role in these issues.

50 million people in Latin America cannot read or write, and nearly one-third of children in primary school repeat a grade.

 

I believe we must extend the benefits of primary education to all. As President, I will commit America to leading a campaign for worldwide access to primary education— with an annual investment of $3 billion—and will help extend primary education to more of the over 2 million children who otherwise will not receive such education in Latin America.

 

Our trade policies should also lift up workers around the world. This struggle over fair trade is about more that just what's at stake for America's workers -it's also about what's at stake for workers in every country. Making sure that workers around the globe are treated fairly and share in trade gains is not only the right thing to do morally, it's the right thing to do economically, and it will make us much safer and more secure.

 

That's what strong labor standards are all about. Making sure that workers have the right to organize and earn a fair wage will not only prevent a "race to the bottom" on labor rights -it will also help build a global middle class that shares in the gains from trade and creates markets for U.S. exports.

 

American families are working harder to get by. Despite living in the land of opportunity, most families’ incomes have stagnated for the past generation. Meanwhile, George Bush’s Washington has let corporate interests grow stronger than ever. The result is Two Americas, one struggling to get by and another that has everything it could want.

 

Starting with unions, over the last few years I have helped 23 national unions organize thousands of workers. I have participated in more than 240 labor events and organizing drives since 2004. Walking picket lines, calling and writing to employers and meeting with workers behind closed doors, I have seen firsthand what unions go through every day trying to protect the right to organize, bargain collectively, get a decent wage and get health care.

 

Illegal employer efforts to block union drives have unfortunately become commonplace.

 

Look at our economic policies --from top to bottom, they're a twisted reflection of American values. Instead of expanding opportunity for all and preventing special privileges for any, they hoard opportunity and protect special privileges for the very few at the very top.

Trade policy is all about corporate profits for big multinationals and not at all about lifting workers' wages or creating American jobs. The tax code provides breaks for hedge fund managers --amazingly, even Democrats backed down from asking them to pay their fair share when Wall Street lobbyists put the pressure on.

 

By the time a decade of corporate opposition to a minimal increase in the minimum wage is overcome, even its own supporters admit that the increase isn't enough --so another decade of corporate opposition begins anew, and workers lose again.

 

I have challenged America to set an ambitious goal that could fundamentally change our country: cutting poverty by a third in a decade and eliminating it within 30 years. To get there, I will increase the reward for working by raising the minimum wage to at least $9.50 an hour by 2012, strengthening labor laws and
expanding the EITC. I will also create a million short-term jobs to help individuals who can’t find good jobs move into permanent work.

 

No single step is more important to ensure the security, shared prosperity and dignity of every American family than true universal health care.

 

In a country as rich as America, no one should have to live a life that is shorter
and less healthy because they cannot buy insurance. Health care reform will also bring down health costs, helping American businesses and workers compete.

 

I will create a million new housing vouchers over five years to help low-income families move closer to better jobs and schools. To invest in struggling neighborhoods, rather than abandoning them, I will replace dilapidated housing in areas of concentrated poverty.

 

I have proposed new Work Bonds to help low-income, working Americans save for the future. Affordable bank accounts for the 28 million Americans without them and new regulations against payday loans will help struggling families get ahead.

 

Our tax code is full of special shelters, loopholes and benefits for wealthy Americans – but not regular families.

For example, the wealthiest investors in America pay only 15 percent on their investment income, far less than what regular families pay on their wages. I will restore fairness to the tax code by repealing George Bush’s tax cuts for families making more than $200,000 a year, restoring the top capital gains rate to 28 percent, and closing abusive tax loopholes.

 

 At the same time, I will make permanent the middle-class tax relief and provide
new tax breaks for middle-class work, savings, and families.

To spur innovation, I will invest in a new energy economy based on efficiency and renewable fuels.

I will increase spending on basic research at the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and lift stifling research restrictions on stem cells.

To restore America’s leadership in math and science education, I will invest more in teacher pay and training to attract good teachers in the schools and subjects where we need them most. I will make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent.

 

 If we have the courage to offer real change and the determination to change Washington --then we will be build the One America we dream of, where every man, woman and child is blessed with the same, great opportunity and held to the same, just rules.

 

1. Why is our nation slow to shape educational programs and policies for both children and adults that provide effective, affordable education to all?

Washington is rigged against regular Americans, whose interests and concerns don’t stand a chance against the onslaught of lobbyists and money that control the place. It’s no wonder that our children’s interests are given short shrift, whenthe agenda in Washington is set by special interests, who hire 60 lobbyists for each member of Congress.

Take higher education as an example. College should be available to everyone who wants to go. It’s part of the American Dream – we should let everyone work hard and prepare themselves for a better future.

But that’s not how it works. Our student aid programs work for the banks that make student loans, but not students. One lender, Sallie Mae, is among the most profitable companies in the world. Large student loans are profitable for banks, but students are graduating with three times more debt than they did only one decade ago.

 

2. As President, what initiatives if any would you promote or welcome to address these quality and financial challenges?

We need to end these two public school systems in Americas --one for the rich and one for everybody else – and create one public school system that actually works for all of us.

 

Nothing in a school is more important to children's success than their teachers. That’s why we should say to the smartest young people in America: teaching is a profession of choice. We need to recruit more excellent teachers in rural areas, in big cities and everywhere in between. We’re going to have to pay them more to teach in hard-to-staff schools and in hard-to-staff subjects like math and science.

Second, we need to invest in helping our teachers advance in their careers --give new teachers extra support and give experienced teachers the opportunity to serve as master teachers.

 

There is so much more to do to invest in our schools.

 

To start, here’s a short list.

 

First, we need to expand early childhood education – including programs like Early Head Start and Head Start. We need to start much younger with kids so that every single child in America, no matter where they live or who their. family is, has an equal chance to start kindergarten or the first grade ready and able to learn.

 

And we have to deal with No Child Left Behind. We need better ways to assess our children’s learning than cheap standardized tests, which become so intrusive in the learning process. . We need to fix the law, and we need to fund it.

 

We also need to address the dropout crisis. Nationwide, almost of a third of students drop out of school before earning a high school diploma. America is about second chances, so I don't see why we shouldn't have “second-chance schools” to lift up former dropouts, offering them one-on-one attention and a chance to earn a diploma at night or at a local community college.

 

The chance to go to good public schools has meant everything to me. All my children have gone to public schools. And I want every single child – no matter what family they came from, no matter the color of their skin or the country their parents were born --to have that same chance.

 

To help make college affordable for every single young American, I have proposed an initiative called “College for Everyone” We ought to say to every young person in America: if you take a college prep curriculum and graduate from high school, qualify to be in college and commit to work at least 10 hours a week, we’ll pay for your public-college tuition, books and fees.

 I’m proud to have been the first person in my family to go to college, and I worked my way through, and it didn’t hurt me a lick.

 

Two years ago, I helped start a “College for Everyone” program in Greene County, North Carolina. The results have been terrific, helping increase the college-going rate from 54 percent to 74 percent.

Now this isn’t free, but I’ll tell you exactly how we can pay for it. Every year, taxpayers spend billions subsidizing banks to make taxpayer-guaranteed student loans. As president, I will eliminate these wasteful subsidies entirely and instead let all students borrow directly from the Department of Education, as millions of
students already do. My plan will free up almost $6 billion a year and pay for most of my College for Everyone proposal – paying for the first year of public-tuition, books and fees for more than 2 million students.

 

Grassroots Organizations

 

Change in America has never begun in the Oval Office. The great movements in this country – the abolitionists, the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the movement to end the Vietnam War, the disabilities movement – all started with the American people.

 

As president, I will call on you and work with you to bring about the big change we so desperately need in this country.

 

Universal health care is a great example.

We must take on the big insurance and drug companies, and beat them. We cannot play by their rules, sit at their table, or give them a seat at ours. They will not give up their power --we have to take it from them.

 

It's time to end the game. It's time to tell the big corporations and the lobbyists who have been running things for too long that their time is over.

 

 It's time to challenge politicians to put the American people's interests ahead
of their own calculated political interests, to look the lobbyists in the eye and just say no.

And it's time for the American people to take responsibility for our government --for in our democracy it is truly ours.

 If we have come to mistrust and question it, it is because we were not vigilant against the forces that have taken it from us. That their game has played on for so long is the fault of each of us --ending the game and returning government of the people to the people is the responsibility of all of us.

 

2. Specifically, will you promise to convene a summit of leaders of GSOP and similar grassroots organizations nationally within 90 days of taking office to explore how such groups might play expanded roles in addressing serious socio-economic issues that face our communities, our nation, and our world?

I look forward to meeting with grassroots organizations and their leadership, including leaders from the Granite State Organizing Project, earlier in my first term as president.

But the American people, especially those working hardest for grassroots change, deserve a president who speaks honestly with them – that’s why I insist,
for example, on spelling out the cost of my plan for universal health care.

While I have said repeatedly that mending America’s international relationships and re-engaging with the world will occupy much of my first few months as president, I do look forward to that event as soon as possible.