Choices News Roundup

There were a bounty of good articles from today and the weekend that I found and tagged. So here is a roundup post of the highlights from those stories. Teasers: Edwards' policy costs add up, Dodd talking energy, Edward's college free tuition plan, Economist on front runner's economic attitudes, and Edwards courts the union vote.

Yes, lots of Edwards, but hey that's what's in the news when it comes to Working Californian's issues.

• John Edwards has offered more policies details than the rest of the Democratic contenders and those numbers add up. This AP article totals it up to about $1 trillion. That is of course less than the $1.8 trillion in Bush tax cuts. The current price tag of the Iraq was is just about $450 billion.

  Edwards says fixing the country's problems takes precedence over eliminating the deficit or offering middle-class tax relief like he proposed when running for president in the last election.

  "I think for me, as opposed to the additional tax relief for the middle class, what's more important is to give them relief from the extraordinary cost of health care, from gasoline prices, the things that they spend money on every single day that are escalating dramatically," Edwards said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

• The AP does a roundup of their own, on the candidate's recent comments on gas economy. Obama, Richardson, Dodd, Clinton and Edwards have all addressed fuel economy in recent days. They are all pushing back on the failure of automakers to reduce their vehicle's gas consumption. Automakers are naturally defensive. However, rising public pressure means there is increased political will to make public policy changes and consequently a campaign topic.
• Dodd was in New Hampshire talking about the war and his energy plan, which now has Gore, Sen. Kerry and former Sen. Bradley praising it. The plan can be considered the most aggressive of any other candidate.
  

  "A vast array of issues are positively affected by having an aggressive energy plan that gets us away from fossil fuels, and transportation and the grid are the two areas you have to do it," Dodd said. "Anyone that tells you they're going to successfully solve global warming and doesn't get into the carbon tax issue or fuel-efficiency standards is just not being candid."

  Dodd said he doesn't buy into the idea that the automobile industry can't do better than it already is with regard to fuel efficiency.

  "With all do respect to the auto industry, with everything else we've done, it's a little hard to convince me that they can't do any better."

• Edwards rolled out his $8 billion college scholarship program called "College for Everyone" on Friday. He wants to pay college freshman's bills for those students who complete a college prep course or tech course in high school, stay away from drugs, alcohol and crime, plus complete community service work. Edwards started a successful pilot program at a North Carolina high school that he wants to take nationwide as president.
  

  Edwards returned Friday to Greene Central High School to announce that 74 percent of its graduating seniors will attend college this fall using hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships. When he began offering the privately funded "College For Everyone" program, just 54 percent of the 2005 graduates had enrolled in college.

  "Everyone across the country is interested in what's happening here in Greene County," Edwards told students during a graduation rally.

• The Economist dives into the three current Democratic front runner's economic policies, advisors and general philosophy. I highly recommend reading the whole article. Here is the intro:
  

  ACCORDING to conventional wisdom John Edwards is the protectionist among the Democrats' three leading presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton is the intellectual heir to (Bill's) Clintonomics, and Barack Obama will position himself somewhere between the two. Judging by their advisers and actions so far, the truth may be more complicated. Mr Edwards is running on the left flank, but less rabidly than many expected. And in some areas, notably trade policy, Mr Obama may be to the right of Mrs Clinton.

• Edwards was courting union voters in NH over the weekend. Nothing particularly new there. Edwards has aggressively gone after the union vote for years now, supporting dozens of labor campaigns across the country.
  

  “The greatest anti-poverty movement in American history is the organized labor movement,” Edwards said. “America needs to understand how important the organized labor movement is to lifting millions of families out of poverty, and how important the movement has been historically in making America what it is today.”

  He added, “The organized labor movement was absolutely crucial to building the middle class in this country. We all worry about the loss of manufacturing jobs. A lot of people have forgotten that none of those jobs were good jobs before the unions. It was the unions that made them good jobs.”

  Edwards then touted his “simple idea” for labor law reform.

  “If you can join the Republican Party by signing your name to a card, any worker in America should be able to join a union by doing the same thing,” he said.

That is all for now, but check back soon. Choices for Working Californians is updated constantly with the latest news from the press and the blogs.