Edwards Highlights Declaration Of Independence For Older Americans On Day Six Of The Main Street Express Bus Tour
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On the sixth day of his Main Street Express bus tour across Iowa, Senator John Edwards is discussing his 11-point Declaration of Independence for Older Americans, which is based on the core values of security, dignity and choice. Joined by acclaimed actor Kevin Bacon, today Edwards is holding events in Dubuque, Cedar Falls and Mason City, where he is highlighting his agenda to help older Americans get the health care they need and the financial protection they deserve while allowing them to live as independently as they desire.
"The basic bargain of America â�" that if you work hard your whole life, you should be able to retire with dignity, security and basic lifestyle choices â�" is at risk," Edwards said. "Our policies for work and savings have not adapted to the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century. Our commitment to a secure retirement has been undermined by corporate greed, our housing policies too often force seniors to choose between isolation or institutionalization, and our health care system is set up to treat the worst problems instead of promoting health and quality of life.
"These are huge challenges, but the great thing about our country is that the American people â�" just as they have over and over again in our nation's history â�" have the power to rise up and bring about the change America needs. I know if we rise to the challenge, we can restore the basic American bargain and reaffirm our commitment to helping older Americans live independently, with the freedom to exercise choice over their health care, financial security and lifestyle."
To meet the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century, Edwards has proposed an 11-point Declaration of Independence for Older Americans, which is organized around three core principles: financial independence, health security and living with dignity:
Protect financial independence and strengthen retirement: Edwards will fight to keep the promise of social security by ending the Social Security tax exemption for workers making more than $200,000 a year. He believes employees who have worked hard all their lives should not be denied the pension benefits they have earned, and corporations must honor the pension promises they've made to workers. Edwards will protect workers pensions and also take steps to help families save, including new universal retirement accounts, new "Get Ahead" tax credits, and free savings accounts for the nearly 28 million Americans without them. He will also fight predatory lending practices that target seniors and other vulnerable Americans and will preserve seniors' freedom to work by strengthening and vigorously enforcing the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Promote health security: Edwards will protect the future of Medicare through health care reforms, and will make prescription drugs more affordable by permitting the safe reimportation, restricting direct-to-consumer advertising, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs, and by giving Medicare beneficiaries the choice of a public plan for their prescription drugs. Edwards will also revolutionize chronic care through proactive disease management and will strengthen geriatric health care by rewarding good primary care, encouraging experienced geriatric doctors to train the next generation of primary care doctors and training nurses to identify simple conditions that could cause downward health spirals.
Support living with dignity: Edwards will offer choices in long-term care to older Americans by reforming Medicare and Medicaid to let people elect home-based care in their communities. Edwards will also improve nursing homes and crack down on elder abuse, while at the same time promoting livable communities and accessible transportation to support independent living for older Americans.
Edwards has spent his career fighting for regular families like the ones he grew up with in his small, rural hometown. During the eight-day Main Street Express tour, Edwards is highlighting his plans to stand up to the special interests on Wall Street and help hard-working families on Main Street. Tomorrow, Edwards will hold events in Ames, Colfax and Ottumwa, and on Monday, he will wrap up the tour with events in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and a finale event in Davenport.
"The basic bargain of America â�" that if you work hard your whole life, you should be able to retire with dignity, security and basic lifestyle choices â�" is at risk," Edwards said. "Our policies for work and savings have not adapted to the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century. Our commitment to a secure retirement has been undermined by corporate greed, our housing policies too often force seniors to choose between isolation or institutionalization, and our health care system is set up to treat the worst problems instead of promoting health and quality of life.
"These are huge challenges, but the great thing about our country is that the American people â�" just as they have over and over again in our nation's history â�" have the power to rise up and bring about the change America needs. I know if we rise to the challenge, we can restore the basic American bargain and reaffirm our commitment to helping older Americans live independently, with the freedom to exercise choice over their health care, financial security and lifestyle."
To meet the economic and lifestyle changes of the 21st century, Edwards has proposed an 11-point Declaration of Independence for Older Americans, which is organized around three core principles: financial independence, health security and living with dignity:
Protect financial independence and strengthen retirement: Edwards will fight to keep the promise of social security by ending the Social Security tax exemption for workers making more than $200,000 a year. He believes employees who have worked hard all their lives should not be denied the pension benefits they have earned, and corporations must honor the pension promises they've made to workers. Edwards will protect workers pensions and also take steps to help families save, including new universal retirement accounts, new "Get Ahead" tax credits, and free savings accounts for the nearly 28 million Americans without them. He will also fight predatory lending practices that target seniors and other vulnerable Americans and will preserve seniors' freedom to work by strengthening and vigorously enforcing the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Promote health security: Edwards will protect the future of Medicare through health care reforms, and will make prescription drugs more affordable by permitting the safe reimportation, restricting direct-to-consumer advertising, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs, and by giving Medicare beneficiaries the choice of a public plan for their prescription drugs. Edwards will also revolutionize chronic care through proactive disease management and will strengthen geriatric health care by rewarding good primary care, encouraging experienced geriatric doctors to train the next generation of primary care doctors and training nurses to identify simple conditions that could cause downward health spirals.
Support living with dignity: Edwards will offer choices in long-term care to older Americans by reforming Medicare and Medicaid to let people elect home-based care in their communities. Edwards will also improve nursing homes and crack down on elder abuse, while at the same time promoting livable communities and accessible transportation to support independent living for older Americans.
Edwards has spent his career fighting for regular families like the ones he grew up with in his small, rural hometown. During the eight-day Main Street Express tour, Edwards is highlighting his plans to stand up to the special interests on Wall Street and help hard-working families on Main Street. Tomorrow, Edwards will hold events in Ames, Colfax and Ottumwa, and on Monday, he will wrap up the tour with events in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and a finale event in Davenport.
I fully support his plan to protect American retirees from rip-off artists from pharmaceutical industry and nursing home elderly people abuses.
But I do condemn Joshua Brown Communist-oriented usage of word " we", especially as he does not specify who concretely we were, just showing his chauvinist sentiment.
I also don't believe in any tax credits, as they will be offset by reactionary growth of very high gasoline prices and rental prices, retail foods items' inflation growth. I believe in higher wages and scientific discoveries. I also promote my generic invention of supertelescope with computerized videofeed of telescopic magnification and laser beams' pulsars to see alien planets, never seen before by any scientists, as western nations were suffering too much with chauvinism and militarism, neofascism to lose their science funding. Will recovery follow the reactionary course of American neofascism of forbidding the alien planets' astronomical discoveries? Please, contribute to my political campaign fund of a liberal Democrat to make same sex marriage legal in USA and to grant amnesty to all illegal aliens, and to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and Afganistan to avoid further casualties on both sides.
Republicans, such as ugly cannibal and reactionary presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani, blame Islam for 911 bombings, but it is only narcomafia that is responsible for 911 bombings. I want to avoid a religious conflict between Christian Americans and Islamic Iraqi Arabs. Let liberal ideas prevail in U.S. politics!