Reply #35: More tax free accounts for millionaires, reaping the hard work of others.

[burr]

But in the private sector this is not considered to be "welfare" or "theft", but sucess and ingenuity. And I have yet to see an Edwards plan to provide universal healthcare, or even a plan to guarantee all Americans "access" to a standard benefit package at an affordable group rate.

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On national security, however, he struck a tone very different from Dean's: "I believe in American strength and believe it strongly. And I don't take a back seat to George Bush or anybody else on that issue." While calling the anger of many Democrats at Bush "understandable," Edwards warned that the party must also be "forward-looking, positive, and optimistic."
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Is this tone different from Dean's? I have never heard Dean stress anything other than the importance of maintaining America's strength, and to warn against the longterm dangers which threaten our nation's ability to maintain its military strength. Most importantly Dean stresses in nearly all his speeches, his optimistic message that the power of change is in the hands of the voters...not in the hands of the politicians.

If Edwards wishes to criticize other candidates, I think he better first give us some specific reasons to support him. Otherwise he is nothing more than a desperate contender...without a voting base, a specific plan, or a justification for attacking those Democrats who do have some of these advantages. Finally, how can someone claim to be a Democrat and cut a deal with three other contenders to limit participation in joint debates to only six. This is the worst type of crooked politics, made in the same tradition of Boss Crump and Mark Hanna. Shut off debate, the candidates lose opportunities to present their viewpoints without buying airtime...while the party voters are the ones who suffer. If those who can raise large sums of money believe they no longer have the time to participate in more than 6 debates during the primaries, all such participants in this deal have already lost my vote for the next election.