Washington – Fighting the kind of poverty that Hurricane Katrina revealed anew will take more than the government can provide, John Edwards said Monday. 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,” Edwards said.
Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who was the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate in 2004, proposed several ways to help poor Americans, whose plight in the hurricane’s wake is prompting a new look at poverty by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Edwards argued that choices made by poor people, especially when they’re young, greatly affect their chances of being poor.
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,” he said, “will also be asked to hold up their end of the bargain: to work, to hold off having kids until they’re ready and to do their part for their kids when the time comes.”
