Posted on 09/18/2005 2:09:26 PM PDT by lunarbicep
INDIANOLA, Iowa - Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards called Sunday for a return of depression era jobs programs to rebuild the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast.
Edwards said those programs would give new hope and money to victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as rebuild shattered cities, such as New Orleans.
He used the Work Products Administration as an example of a depression era program that built parks, bridges and other facilities that are still being used.
"We ought to have a new WPA like was used during the depression to create jobs, and we ought to bring those folks who have been displaced back into New Orleans to rebuild their city," Edwards said. "Give them a decent wage and decent benefits. That's the way to help rebuild New Orleans they way it should be built.
"Not just rebuild the city, but rebuild people's lives," he said.
Edwards spoke to more than 1,300 hard-core Democratic activists at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry, just outside Indianola.
Since the last presidential election, where he was nominee John Kerry's running mate, Edwards has opened a center for the study of poverty issues at the University of North Carolina.
He is traveling the country, making the case that the nation needs to face the growing level of poverty. He's made four stops in Iowa, where precinct caucuses launch the presidential nominating season.
Edwards said Hurricane Katrina has focused the nation's attention on poverty, because so many victims of the storm are poor.
He said that attention gives the country's political leaders an opportunity to make progress on the issue.
"The real issue is, in this window where people are paying attention, will we have leadership that sustains the effort?" Edwards said.
Edwards criticized President Bush's response to the storm, saying it showed a lack of understanding of the poor in America.
"He has consistently shown a lack of understanding," Edwards said.
He said a Bush relief proposal would give victims money in bank accounts that most don't have.
"He's talking about putting this money into people's bank accounts," Edwards said. "Most of these people don't have bank accounts."
Edwards said Bush also has suspended laws that require that the prevailing wage be paid on reconstruction projects.
"That's insane," he said. "What these people need is a decent wage. It's the reason so many of them are living in poverty to begin with."
Edwards has left little doubt that he's interested in another run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and being the keynote speaker at Harkins' steak fry was a plum assignment.
It's one of the largest Democratic events of the year, and allows Edwards to rebuild contacts he made during the 2004 campaign.
In his fiery speech, Edwards said the war on poverty takes Democrats back to their roots.
He said 1 million people have slipped into poverty in just the last year, a decline in living caused by Republican policies.
"We don't need another Republican party," he said. "We need to be Democrats because this party gives voice to people who have no voice, and they never needed it more than they do now."
Harkin has held his annual steak fry for 28 years and he echoed Edwards theme, pointing to the haunting images of the poor living in misery.
"I'll say this about Hurricane Katrina ... it opened our eyes," Harkin said.
Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson, who also heads the Iowa Democratic Party, said the momentum started by the steak fry is badly needed because the party faces a tough round of elections next year, including defending the governor's office.
Edwards said he'll be back often and that his theme won't change.
"Katrina has focused the country's attention on an issue that doesn't just exist on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, but it exists all across the country and we need to take this window opportunity and act."
ROTFLMAO!!!! First we have all the clowns from LA wringing their hands, then Sideshow Bill stands up his hind legs, braying at the moon, now here's the Breck Boy.
Hey Johnny boy, I'll tell you the real reason you all are desperate to ship the people back to NO. That reason is to keep these incompetent idiots in office! You and your ilk cannot afford to have these folks rub elbows with moderate, productive, good hearted people. God forbid that they learn that they can have a productive life with just a hand up from their fellow American brothers and sisters!
No wonder they're all running around like lunatics, spouting nonsense....they're scared to death!!! This makes me happy : )
Actually Edwards is right. Make those affected rebuild. Pay them for their labor.
What an incredible ass. The man is not only a demagogue and a fraud, he's also a nobody. The senate wasn't good enough for him, although his record in the senate was totally pathetic. Why the press pays any attention to him anymore is beyond me, but if he has a chance in hell of getting the Democrat nomination in '08, that's just fine with me.
Was'nt that the creep who claimed to be able to hear from DEAD PEOPLE?
Sounds like a Democrap to me esp since they even get dead & fictitious people to vote for them every election.
Seems to me like Louisiana is an example of a place that has had the "WPA" without the "W" part, for the past 60 years.
Imagine proposing the depression solution, The "New Deal Redux" all over again, 70 years later, in an economy that has a 5% unemployment rate.
Kind of suggests that Dimocrats like John Edwards can't look at Louisiana and the Gulf Coast as opportunities for real people needing real jobs...
Gosh if I was 30 years younger I'd be learning how to build houses and forming my own small mobile construction company. I know folks damaged last year in Florida who still don't have their houses repaired and can't find reliable contractors to do the work.
Edwards would welcome the return of the Depression.
Like what, Bread lines?
The Breck Girl needs to realize that a lot of the dem voters who left NOLA DID NOT WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE! What in &#&% does he think is going to motivate them to work NOW? The capable and employed left in the days before Katrina struck, they are the ones who will likely not return, at least not in large numbers. They will make it elsewhere. The rest will return when someone pays for a Greyhound to bring 'em back to new public housing.
I almost choked when I read his "living wage" comment, which is code word for "making more than registered nurses do". Makes me sick!
Ok, Ok, maybe I am missing something here. Wasn't the purpose of all of our welfare programs to give the poor the
opportunity to help lift themselves out of poverty? So now...we are going to devote even more money to help the
same people out of poverty? Isn't a part of the problem here that so many of the people on welfare have not
entered the workforce, trying to make a life for themselves
that does not involve receiving assistance from the Federal government?
So now, we are going to create make work programs for people who have refused to work in the past? And just what
makes anyone think that these people who have refused to work in the past are now going to all of a sudden go
rushing off to embrace new job opportunities?
This is beginning to look more and more like reparations has arrived. We can help to rebuild homes for the poor,
but we cannot enforce a work ethic on a group of people where none has existed for the last generation or so.
How about this for a novel idea. If you have a job you can return to NO. If not, then you should be moved to a government camp until such a time that one is able to provide a useful service to society...
huh, uh >waking from a restless dream< oh man, I need to cut back on the juju fruits before bed
I listened to every minute of the Roberts hearing that was televised and you are 100% wrong about him. With very few exceptions (Ann Coulter being the only one I can think of), all of our staunchest conservative judges and pundits like him.
So am I supposed to believe my own eyes and ears, Ted Olson, Mark Levin, etc., or you? That's an easy choice.
So all the democrats are borrowing pages from Jimmy "the slime" Carter by opeing shadow government offices.
So edwards is opening a sham center in order to consolodate future polical power.
Picking up coal on the side of railways in desperation to conserve energy and save the planet.
In my part of the woods folks said WPA stood for "We Poke Along".
Nagin himself said he had trouble getting bus drivers to work on SUNNY days.
"He said that the shovel-leaners on WPA jobs led people to say that WPA meant, "We Play Around"."
Unfortunately if it's left up to Nagin, Blanco and Landrieu it'll end up meaning "Won't Plan......AGAIN!"
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