Yo Mr. Vice President: Call John and Elizabeth Edwards

Yesterday, President Obama announced a Middle Class TF to hold public hearings on how to strengthen the Middle Class. VP Joe Biden is the chair of the TF, and I applaud out POTUS in picking the VPOTUS to lead it. Here are two video clips, the first by President Obama about the TF.



I think it is a good idea and VP Biden is a good person to chair it. However, I take a small exception with something the POTUS said about the poor. He said they would be front and center as a part of it, but only if they are willing to work for it. That sounds like Rethug (or what I term the "biscuits and gravy crowd"--who often say they didn't need welfare when they were downright poor in eating gruel everyday) rhetoric to me, as though poor people are lazy and only want to collect welfare.

But perhaps our POTUS doesn't understand the working poor who need to be put front and center. They have been working their hearts out for years and can't get anywhere as it is, and now, they are sliding further into the ditch. Bankruptcies are up due to health care emergencies requiring lengthy care in the hospital, and often due to out of pocket expenses, even if the person is insured, according to the National Coalition on Health Care:

• A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that the average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. In addition, the study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.
• Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
• A new survey shows that more than 25 percent said that housing problems resulted from medical debt, including the inability to make rent or mortgage payments and the development of bad credit ratings.
• About 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs.

Yes, a middle class issue, but it hits the working poor the most, many who aren't eligible for Medicare or Medicaid.

Here's VP Biden's Speech about the TF:




Biden says protecting the middle class lifts up the poor. I would argue John Edwards' position of lifting up the poor into the middle class strengthens the middle class, and it starts with EFCA, doing something about the abuses by lending predators, extending health care to all, affordable college or training for those who seek further education, incentive pay for urban and rural teachers, and of course, Head Start, which is in the Recovery Act.

VP Biden, I know you already have an executive director, Jared Bernstein. He's learned, has lots of statistics, but I'm not certain he knows how to talk to the working poor or common man if he cannot illustrate an affinity. But I implore you to also ask either Elizabeth or John Edwards to be part of the Task Force as they understand the common man and issues of poverty better than anyone. Remember, JRE grew up from a working class family that was poor when he was born.

JRE took a poverty tour during the campaign, one that the M$M (yeah, that includes the Internet media too)largely ignored, but nonetheless an important listening tour. Here is a clip from the Cleveland stop:



JRE knew a train wreck was coming thousands of miles before it happened. He had solutions long before the other candidates did. Why anyone didn't listen to him in the campaign is beyond me, but most weren't, and that's why he dropped out of the race a year ago yesterday. But it's not too late to utilize John's expertise, or if the Administration is concerned about JRE's political reputation, then invite Elizabeth to meet the TF and ask the hard questions, especially in the area of health care.

We don't have a minute to waste. President Obama, are you listening? If there is a sense of urgency, don't worry about how JRE appears politically at the moment. He is ready to serve if you would give him a chance.

Letter from Elizabeth Edwards to Barack Obama

Great Crises Call for Bold Leadership
by Elizabeth Edwards 11-10-2008

Dear President-elect Obama,

Although it has been said that every great president needs a crisis during which to exhibit his greatness, it is also true, but less said, that the greatness is displayed in the bold strokes that man is willing to embrace in such times: Lincoln and emancipation, Franklin Roosevelt and sweeping social programs. The crises are here. Do not fail your destiny. Treat health care as a moral issue, not a political one. Consider those in poverty and those in fear of poverty as a test of our national character. Save God's planet while there is still time. This is your moment.


God's Politics blog by Jim Wallis

She's right. I hope he will get started on SCHIP asap.

Colin Powell Channels John Edwards on MTP

John Edwards sent himself into public exile during the general election in order not to distract attention from the Democratic candidates' campaigns, most especially the Obama-Biden campaign. It was too bad that Edwards had to disappear because all of us wanted to hear Obama to talk more about poverty, as he promised, but with the financial meltdown that impacted the middle class, the working poor, who were already behind, got left out of the conversation.

Until today.

On Meet the Press, moderator Tom Brokaw asked Colin Powell about the overlooked issues in the campaigns:

MR. BROKAW: What's not on the screen right now that concerns you that should be more prominent in the minds of the American people and the people running for president?

GEN. POWELL: I think the American people and the gentlemen running for president will have to, early on, focus on education more than we have seen in the campaign so far. America has a terrible educational problem in the sense that we have too many youngsters not finishing school. A third of our kids don't finish high school, 50 percent of minorities don't finish high school. We've got to work on this, and my, my wife and I are leading a campaign with this purpose.

Also, I think, the new president has to realize that the world looks to America for leadership, and so we have to show leadership on some issues that the world is expecting us to, whether it's energy, global warming and the environment. And I think we have to do a lot more with respect to poverty alleviation and helping the needy people of the world. We need to increase the amount of resources we put into our development programs to help the rest of the world. Because when you help the poorest in the world, you start to move them up an economic and social ladder, and they're not going to be moving toward violence or terrorism of the kind that we worry about.

Powell is borrowing from what JRE said to the Council on Foreign Relations 17 months ago:

There's an emerging consensus inside the armed forces that we must move beyond the idea of a war on terror. The Commander of the U.S. Military's Central Command recently stated that he would no longer use the "long war" framework. Top military leaders like retired General Anthony Zinni have rejected the term. These leaders know we need substance, not slogans—leadership, not labels.

The question is, what should replace the war on terror? Since the end of the Cold War, folks here at CFR and elsewhere have been engaged in an effort to be the next George Kennan and define the era. As all of you know, we need a new strategy for rebuilding a strong military for a new century.

Any new strategy must include new preventive measures to win the long-term struggle and fuel hope and opportunity. This includes strong and creative diplomacy, and also new efforts to lead the fight against global poverty. I've proposed a plan to lead an international effort to educate every child in the world. As president, I would increase foreign assistance by $5 billion a year to make millions of people safer, healthier, and more democratic, and by creating a cabinet-level post to lead this effort.

In fairness to the Obama-Biden campaign, they did mention global poverty in their position paper on Foreign Policy:

Fight Global Poverty: Obama and Biden will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015, and they will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion to achieve that goal. They will help the world's weakest states to build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.

It was good though that someone was able to remind voters that poverty is widespread and that we are all interconnected in terms of national security. It's just the American people are hurting and we have to put them first.

I thank General Powell for relaying John Edwards' ideas and putting them back on the burner.

Powell's endorsement of Obama can be found here.

Edwards to Join Global Poverty Initative Advisory Board at MIT

Yesterday, JRE was at MIT as one of the keynotes for kicking off Millennium Campus Conference at MIT.



Video courtesy of NECN.

It's amazing to me we can spend billions and trillions of dollars in a black hole called Iraq, but 35 million Americans went to bed hungry or were underfed last year. And my understanding is that GPI will be looking at sustainability of water as it is connected to growing crops in underdeveloped countries.

And no, he's still not interested in VP.