Nope, you can’t buy an Election, why …
Cuz … Money Don’t Vote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
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Yes, for a few more years at least,
The People still do … (vote that is)
John Edwards at LiveStrong on Corporate Lobbyists
August 2007 (moderator Chris Matthews)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
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John Edwards:
If you could do it, by compromise and negotiation —
Then WHY don’t we have Universal Health Care today?
John Edwards – Just Say No to Lobbyists
October 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
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John Edwards:
The reason we don’t have Universal Health Care today is because of Drug Companies, Insurance Companies and their Lobbyists, in Washington. They stand between you and the Health Care that you need.
We have to take this system on, we have to change it. We have to be willing to be honest about it.
…You have to say NO to these People!
You have to say as President I represent the American People!
That’s the only way we’ll get the Change that we need in this Country.
John Edwards on Taking on Entrenched Special Interests
1-5-2008 NH Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
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John Edwards:
I want to say a quick word about this. You know, it is true that these entrenched interests — whether you’re talking about oil companies, drug companies, gas companies, whoever — these entrenched interests are literally stealing our children’s future. They have a stranglehold on this democracy and they are having an incredibly destructive force on the middle class, on families being able to do what my family has done and so many who are sitting here have been able to do.
And the problem is you can’t be with those people, take their money and then challenge them. It doesn’t work. You have to be willing to actually stand up and say no — no to lobbyist money, no to PAC money, no corporate lobbyists working for me in the White House. If you intend to take them on, and if it is personal for you — and this is extraordinarily personal for me — if it’s personal for you, then you can be successful bringing about the change.
Teddy Roosevelt — just one quick example — Teddy Roosevelt — Teddy Roosevelt, a great American president — he didn’t make deals with the monopolies and the trusts. Teddy Roosevelt took them on, busted the monopolies, busted the trusts. That’s what it’s going to take.
We have a battle in front of us. We do. I don’t think we have a problem with politicians in Washington spending enough time with lobbyists and going to cocktail parties. They do it all the time. They do it every single day, and I’ll tell you who’s paying the price for those cocktail parties: Natalie Sarkisian, every single American who doesn’t have health care coverage, everybody who’s going to the gas pump and paying so much money for their gas. When are we going to have a president who actually takes these people on? That’s what I’m going to do.
John Edwards: “Enough is enough”
1-5-2008 NH Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
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John Edwards:
What you see happening in America today, if you’re president of the United States and you’re looking at this from altitude is you see a very few Americans getting wealthier and wealthier, you see the biggest corporations in America’s profits through the roof — ExxonMobil just made $40 billion, record profits — all of that happening at the same time that we have 47 million people with no health care, 37 million who will wake up in this country tomorrow worried about feeding and clothing their children. Tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America and served this country honorably will go to sleep under bridges and on grates.It’s time for us to say and it’s time for the president to say enough is enough. This is a battle for the future of our children. This is a battle for the middle class.
Let’s take jobs, which we haven’t talked about. We’ve touched on a lot of other things, but we haven’t talked about jobs. We’ve had a trade and tax policy that is bleeding American jobs, and all it has done is pad the profits of the biggest multinational corporations in America. You talk about professors here at this college.
…I saw a projection just a week or so ago suggesting that America could lose as many as 20 (million) to 30 million more jobs over the next decade. Think about that for a minute, 30 million. And who’s the most at-risk group? College graduates. This is not just people who are working in mills and working in factories — who have been devastated by this, completely devastated — these are middle-class families, these are college graduates and their jobs at risk.
“We need a different Tax Policy, a different Trade Policy,
where the first question, and this is what I WILL ask
when I’m President of the United States:‘Is this Trade Proposal, Is this Tax Proposal,
IS it good for working Middle Class Americans?’That’s the Question!”
John Edwards: This Week with George Stephanopoulos
1-5-2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
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John Edwards: The real question is What is Day One in the White House going to look like? “Day One, in my White House there will be NO Corporate Lobbyists, Nobody who Lobbied for Foreign Governments.”
…“Yes. There will be NO Lobbyists who have worked for Trial Lawyers, NO Lobbyists who have worked for Big Corporations in my White House — Period!”
…“I don’t think the Lobbyists are doing America any good! I think what they’re doing is, they’re standing up against working Middle Class families. And the Middle Class is struggling, and at risk as a result.”
…This is the reason George, that the Voters here in NH, and all the future States, need an ‘unfiltered Debate’ between the two of us, about who can best bring about change.
George Stephanopoulos: You want a 2-person race?
John Edwards: I want a debate with — Listen I like Senator Obama very much. We do have a basic general view that is very similar. But I have a very view than he does, about how we bring about Change. I think we have an ‘epic fight’ on our hands, against these entrenched monied interests. And I think we’ll never be successful —
George Stephanopoulos: He led the fight for Lobbying Reform in the Senate, he says.
John Edwards: But he talks about this in a that suggests, you sit at a table and negotiate, with Drug Company Lobbyists, Insurance Company Lobbyists, and Oil Company Lobbyists, and you can somehow negotiate — they’ll negotiate their power away. That’s a fantasy, in my judgment! I don’t think it will ever happen! I’ve been these people my entire life. First for 20 years in court rooms. And then I did it in public life.
…
What I am saying is these people have a disproportionate influence on the way the Government works, and they are stopping Progress. And let me be specific, we’re talking about this too generically:
Drug Companies and Insurance Companies have killed Health Care Reform in America.
Oil Companies have kept us from protecting the Environment, by attacking Global Warming.
The biggest multi-national corporations have set up, a set of Trade Systems and a set of Tax Laws that benefit them and profit them, but the Middle Class and working people are struggling as the result.
That is Wrong! I want to be the President that fights for the Middle Class, fights for working people, the kind of people I grew up with, George. I said this last night. This not abstract, or academic for me — it is PERSONAL! I see these people, going to these cocktail parties, having their receptions. You’ve been there George, you know how it works!
…I mentioned this last night, this young woman who lost her life Nataline Sarkisyan, just a few week ago. Because her insurance company, one of the largest in America would not pay for a liver transplant operation — even though she HAD insurance. They would NOT pay for it! And People say to me, as their President, they want me to sit at a table and negotiate with these people?
I mean, they’re the PROBLEM, they’re NOT the SOLUTION!
And my job is to stand up for the American People against them!
…This Cause, of fighting for people like Nataline Sarkisyan, fighting for people like my own family, and for the Middle Class, and giving them a decent life. And making sure their kids have a better life — which is what this is ultimately about — this is ‘the Cause of my Life’!
And I have NO Intention of stopping!
I am in this, through the Convention — and to the White House.
George Stephanopoulos: through the Convention?John Edwards: Absolutely!
… I am in this through the Convention — and to the White House.
SO … Who is Standing up for you and your family, and your Future?
Who is looking for just another way, that we can “all just get along” …
I’m sorry, “Playing Nice” just does NOT work, anymore!
That Ship has sailed!
Look what happens when you work hard and “play by the rules” — hard-working Americans “get played for fools”!
Distribution of Wealth Trends in the US
http://www.bluehampshire.com/s…
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http://afferentinput.blogspot….
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[Each Quintile represents 20% of the Population, vs the break-even Zero-line.]
Well, advocates of Free Trade like to say: “there are Winners and there are Losers”
It’s just there are a heck of lot more of us
on the Downward sloping Trend AWAY from Progress and a Better Life —
Than there are those who actually moving TOWARDS IT!
(that is, about 95% have “been played”, if you look at the Game going on!)
John Edwards IS Right: “Enough is enough!”
This Game Must End!
Can American really continue to “play nice” with those Entrenched Interests, and their paid Lobbyists, that are part of the PROBLEM?
Do you trust them to “play fair” so that we can all get along, and arrive at a SOLUTION?
IF you think that, well, DO I have a Bridge in Minnesota, I want to sell you!