[John Edwards] Poor Americans must also help fight poverty

From The Seattle Times

By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Fighting the kind of poverty that Hurricane Katrina revealed anew will take more than the government can provide, John Edwards said yesterday. It also will take a commitment by the poor to work and stop having babies at young ages, he said.

"While America does more, people will have to do more, too," said Edwards, a former and likely future presidential candidate.

The former North Carolina senator, the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate in 2004, used a Washington speech to criticize President Bush's response to the hurricane. He also proposed new ways to help poor Americans, whose plight in the hurricane's wake is prompting a new look at poverty by Democrats and Republicans alike.

In a speech yesterday, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, also criticized Bush for the hurricane response and his handling of the Iraq war.

Edwards went further in exploring possible solutions. He argued that choices made by poor people, especially when they're young, greatly affect their chances of being poor.

"When a 13-year-old girl thinks there's nothing wrong with having a baby that will drive them both toward lives of poverty," he said, society has failed.

"When 15-year-old boys become fathers, then walk away, get shot or go to jail," he added, society has failed.

He urged expanding government programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit for people who work but are poor and creating federally financed "work bonds" that give low-income working families $500 a year, housing vouchers to help poor people move to better neighborhoods with better schools and $1,000 annual grants that they could save for five years toward down payments on houses.

In exchange, he said, the poor and the government would have a new "covenant."

"Everyone will also be asked to hold up their end of the bargain," Edwards said, "to work, to hold off having kids until they're ready and to do their part for their kids when the time comes."