Senator Edwards is moving middle class economic issues front and center. It's time.

[EV_Ares]

The numbers are familiar--skyrocketing credit card charges, predatory mortgages, families working hard and sinking deeper in debt each month. What's new is the aggressiveness of the solutions--and the fact that he is willing to make them a centerpiece in his presidential bid.

Will Edwards stand alone on these issues? Or will all the candidates get more aggressive in putting together proposals to rein in the credit industry?

Senator Edwards has put some hard-hitting proposals on the table. On credit cards, for example, he says he will work to end universal default, apply interest rate increases only prospectively, demand full disclosure of how long it will take a family to pay off a debt using minimum monthly payments, and restore ten day grace periods to late fees. He says he is ready to go after mortgage abuses and payday loans and initiate a plan to help families save for emergencies.

The centerpiece of the proposal is a Financial Product Safety Commission--renamed as a Family Savings and Credit Commission. This means more than outlawing any specific credit practice because, if done right, it would be the gift that keeps on giving--the reform that can provide consumer protection to match new products that the credit industry invents later on.


(((entire article @ link below)))

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/warrenreports/2007/jun/21/edwards_steps_up_on_middle_class

[Ilsa]

1. I was a Wes Clark supporter in '04, but Edwards, especially the Mrs.,

has really got my attention this time around.

[EV_Ares]

2. You know Ilsa, you are right about her. She is one spouse that has

certainly had a very positive aspect on his campaign, before & after her cancer issue. She is a very intelligent, down home person that comes across very warm to you.

Wes Clark is good too. That is one thing about the Dems, they do have some good quality out there. I know a lot of people don't like Kucinich & I realize the problem of his electibility. Unfortunate, that someone who speaks the truth, knows the right direction to go and has a care for all people, cannot get elected because of that.

[Ilsa]

3. I like Kucinich too, and my concern isn't so much about electibility

as that he seems to make an "easy target" for self-righteous Rethugs. Sigh.

[EV_Ares]

4. That too; but it would be nice that someone could come out and be

straight-forward, not have to use the proper talking points and tell it like it is.

[John Q. Citizen]

5. When did he abandon the impoverished and move to helping the middle class?

Just kidding, I like his poverty awareness issues. I just wish he wasn't so pro American empire and was less corporitist. His healthcare plan calls for subsidizing private health insurance companies, and that's just wrong.

I'm supporting Kucinich until and unless Gore enters the race.

[waiting for hope]

6. He gets it - if the Middle Class

falters, then the divide between the two Americas will get even bigger and this country will resemble 12th century Europe, lots of fancy lords and ladies and a zillion serfs.

Ask - how many of us are two or three paychecks away from losing it all? I know that if something happened to my husband or myself and we couldn't work, we would lose our house and then what? The economy is more fragile than most people think and Edwards understands this.

K&R!!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. The middle class is already gone. It started with Clinton.

And NAFTA.

I can't get a job and neither can my SO. we have 3 degrees each and decades of experience.

Screw the corporate world.

[EV_Ares]

9. Exactly Hope. it is something we all can't dwell on but if you just stop

for a moment and think what would happen as you say, if you, or, you & your husband, in so many cases both lost your jobs and did not have enough savings to hold you over until you got another job, the things that could happen. Think about your health insurance and Cobra is un affordable to most.

We do our best to try & save and put money aside for emergencies as most people do but it gets harder day by day the way costs are increasing.

We have friends and relatives that voted for GW and I think only on the belief they thought he was a christian man. I have tried to tell them they voted against themselves. Their real friend and Christian was Gore or Kerry. However, the idiots are as dumb as the prez.

Anyway, thanks for posting and lets hope there is a turnaround somewhere in our future for the sake of ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.

[Digit]

7. K&R