Democratic Candidates Forum Sponsored by WIS-TV South Carolina, the Center for Community Change, and the Tom Joyner Morning Show

January 30, 2004 Friday

HEADLINE: DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FORUM SPONSORED BY WIS-TV SOUTH CAROLINA, THE CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CHANGE, AND THE TOM JOYNER MORNING SHOW

SUBJECT: "DIALOGUE WITH AMERICA'S FAMILIES"

ANNOUNCER: DAVID STANTON, WIS-TV

MODERATOR: TOM JOYNER

CANDIDATES: SENATOR JOHN KERRY (D-MA); FORMER VERMONT GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN; RETIRED GENERAL WESLEY CLARK; SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC); SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT); REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH); REVEREND AL SHARPTON

LOCATION: COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

BODY:
MR. JOYNER: I'm Tom Joyner of the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

MR. STANTON: Presidential Candidates Forum, a Dialogue with America's Families. This forum is sponsored by WIS-TV, the Center for Community Change, and the Tom Joyner Morning Program. I'm David Stanton with WIS-TV.

MR. JOYNER: I'm Tom Joyner of the Tom Joyner Morning Show. What we have this morning are real families selected and these real families will ask questions of the candidates. The candidates will come out here one at a time, and these families will talk to these candidates one-on-one about the issues that affect them. This is not a debate, this is a dialogue with America's families.

Are we ready to get started?

MR. STANTON: Before we begin, we're going to review our format. Each candidate is going to be introduced and will have 45 seconds to respond to an opening statement responding to this question, would you set a goal of reducing poverty as president, and if so what would the goal be, and how would you achieve it?

MR. JOYNER: We have to do the legal disclaimer.

MR. STANTON: The families will ask the questions, the candidates will have a minute 30 to respond.

MR. JOYNER: I mean, the views, and how the lawyers always have you say, the views do not reflect the views of the radio station, the television station, and the Center for Community Change.

MR. STANTON: I think you just did. Thank you very much.

MR. JOYNER: Legal is in my ear.

MR. STANTON: Tom and I are going to also be asking questions, and the candidates will have a minute to respond to each of our questions. And we also ask the audience, if you would, please, keep your applause down until the end of our program so we'll have more time to hear from the candidates. Six of the seven candidates for president are here today. Senator Joseph Lieberman declined our invitation.

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MR. STANTON: And our next candidate is North Carolina Senator John Edwards.

Senator Edwards, come on out.

SEN. EDWARDS: Hey, Wes, great to see you. Hey, Tom.

MR. STANTON: Senator Edwards, we would ask that you begin with a statement on poverty in America. You'll have 45 seconds.

SEN. EDWARDS: We have, actually this is an issue that people don't talk about anymore. And one thing I would say at the outset is, it's one thing for people to come in front of you and talk about poverty, it's a different thing to talk about it every time you speak, everywhere in America, which is what I do. This is part of the speech I give every time I speak, to have $35 million Americans living in poverty every day in a country of our wealth and prosperity, children going to bed hungry, children who don't have the clothes to keep them warm, millions of Americans who are working full time, supporting their families, working for minimum wage, and living in poverty is wrong. You and I need to change that. Here's what we can do, I want to lift 10 million Americans out of poverty in my administration.

MR. STANTON: Senator, time is up.

SEN. EDWARDS: I will stop.

MR. STANTON: And Tom Joyner is going to introduce our panel.

MR. JOYNER: I love this format.

SEN. EDWARDS: You like the time limits?

MR. JOYNER: No, I like the fact that we've got real people asking questions that concern them.

SEN. EDWARDS: Very good.

MR. JOYNER: Please meet Elaine Johnson. Elaine Johnson is from Orangeburg, South Carolina. Her son Darius is one of three young men in Orangeburg County to be killed in Iraq. Darius joined the military shortly after graduating from high school. Elaine, tell us about your son.

MS. JOHNSON: Okay. First of all, my son Darius served his country, and he served his country to the best of his ability. I gave my son three choices, it was either college, job, or the military. He went to college, but he wasn't ready for college. So there was no jobs in South Carolina, so he was forced to go into the military. He chose the honest path. I am proud of my son for serving in the military, but young people should join the military because they want to be soldiers, not because they are forced into joining the military. Due to the fact of my son joining the military, he's become a casualty of an unjustifiable war. I have a daughter that is a sophomore at Allen University, and I am so afraid when she becomes a college graduate that there will be no jobs.

Senator Edwards, my question is to you, what plan do you have in place to secure jobs not only for college graduate students, but for students that are coming straight out of high school, that don't want to further their education, and don't want to be forced into the military for another choice, of providing for education, or financial.

SEN. EDWARDS: First of all, thank you. Thank you for what you've done, for your family and what you've done. God bless you, god bless you for what you've been through. Here's what I would say about what you just asked about. This is something-I was, as most people know, born here in South Carolina. I grew up in my very early years lived in a mill village, a textile mill village, and we all know what's happened to the textile jobs here in South Carolina, most of them have left. We have so much work to do, both to protect the jobs that we have, and to create jobs, so that what happened with your son, and what you're worried about with your daughter doesn't happen again.

Here's what I would do. First, we have to change our trade policy. Trade agreements like NAFTA have been devastating, caused enormous job loss here, and had huge, devastating consequences for families, for communities, we have to have a different kind of trade policy in America, so we don't continue to see the jobs leaving and going overseas. We also have loopholes in our tax code that are actually giving tax breaks to American companies that are leaving and going overseas, which is absolutely crazy. Why in the world are we giving a tax break to corporations that are leaving America and going some place else? It makes no sense. We ought to stop that.

We ought to go further and give a tax break, I believe, to American companies that will keep jobs here in America. Then in communities like-you're from Orangeburg, right? I've been in Orangeburg, and I know what's going on in Orangeburg.

MR. STANTON: Senator, wrap up.

SEN. EDWARDS: I will wrap up. One last thing. We need to create incentives for businesses, new businesses and existing businesses to locate in communities like yours in Orangeburg, so that we can bring good jobs there. Thank you, sir.

MR. JOYNER: Joining Elaine Johnson is James Holloway, a school board member in Saluda County, and a retired textile worker. Mr. Holloway has seen the job market in South Carolina's textile industry virtually disappear.

MR. HOLLOWAY: Senator Edwards, thank you for being here, and my concern is, where I live the largest employer closed his plant and moved his work offshore, leaving 900 of my people, family people, friends, jobless. We've recently been told this spring coming there will be another plant that closes, losing 140 more jobs. Saluda now has approximately maybe 50 textile jobs there. There are little or no jobs for kids there. I would like to say to you that, this thing that bought a bill of good, and which I call a false bill of goods, saying that this new global economy would be the best thing for all of us. We have not received those benefits from that global economy. So my question to you is how can we change the course so that the benefits of this economic, so-called global economy, can be felt by all American communities?

SEN. EDWARDS: James, what happened in your town, in your community, is exactly what we've seen happen all over South Carolina. I've seen it happen in my own state of North Carolina. My father worked in a textile mill all his life. You said you worked in textile mill, so you know what it's like working in a cotton mill, in a textile mill. Well, my father worked there, and I worked there myself when I was young. And what happens is when these mills close, and you have seen it personally. What happens is it just devastates families, devastates communities, and the jobs are just leaving and going overseas.

You know what's happened is, we are so focused on free trade, there's no fair trade anymore. And that's why jobs are leaving. We have to change that. We have to change trade agreements like NAFTA. WE have to change our other trade agreements to make sure that they, in fact, put us on a more level playing field so that we can keep jobs here in this country. It is so important, and just so you know, this is not some academic Washington issue for me. I've been living with this my whole life. I have seen-the mill closed in my home town in North Carolina, and I saw what it did to the community. I saw what it did to families. So I know exactly what you're talking about. And you have my commitment as your president that we will stop what George Bush is doing with the loss of jobs here in South Carolina.

MR. STANTON: Senator Edwards, you'll have one minute for the answer to this question.

MR. JOYNER: Follow-up question?

MR. HOLLOWAY: Poor people are often told to take personal responsibility, but employers we know they're very powerful. They can decide whether they're going to pay a living wage. They can decide whether they're going to treat employees fairly. They can decided when to close a plant or keep it open. So, when you become the president of these United States, what will you do to make sure corporations have the community workers and so forth in mind, and at heart, and what will you do to level the playing field?

SEN. EDWARDS: What happens is, if you look at what's going on, it's not just corporations who for profits are taking their plants and their jobs overseas. What happens is, you hear the Bush administration talk, and they make it sound like the economy is doing just fine. Well, Wall Street economy is doing just fine. Main Street economy is doing terrible.

People are hurting, they're struggling. And that every same thing that you talked about earlier going on with your community, there are a lot of things that we need to do. One thing we need to do is, we need to raise the minimum wage in this country. The idea that we have millions of Americans working full-time and living in poverty is wrong. We should say no forever to any American working full-time and living in poverty. They should not be able to do that.

The other thing is, we've got to look out not just for the CEOs, they seem to be doing just fine, but the question is, how are working people doing? How are people like you doing? We need a president that will stand up for you, that's what we need.

MR. STANTON: Senator, the next question is this, you made millions of dollars as a trial lawyer according to published reports, you and your wife recently purchased two multi-million dollars homes in the Washington area. You talk about two Americas. Is it reasonable to think that you can relate to those who are less fortunate, to those who don't have insurance, or a roof over their heads?

SEN. EDWARDS: Yes, it is. The answer is, the life that I have lived is the dream that's being shut off for so many Americans every single day. I was brought home-I was brought home to a mill village in Seneca, South Carolina, to a little two-room house. My father had to borrow the money to get me out of the hospital. I grew up from the time I was very young the same way that most people grow up in this country, working hard, working hard trying to build a better life for myself, for my own family. And, you're right, I've done very well. But the problem is, the problem is most Americans, including all these folks up here, and most of these folks in the audience, they're not doing fine. George Bush is taking very good care of people who are doing well. The problem is, he's shutting off opportunity from all those people who are struggling every single day. I'll tell you, I'll say this to every single person in the audience, I grew up the way you grew up, I come from the South.

MR. STANTON: You need to wrap up.

SEN. EDWARDS: You have to let me finish. You asked me the question. I grew up the way you grew up. I come from the same place. I spent 20 years in courtrooms fighting for you against big corporate America, against big insurance companies. I will never forget where I come from, and you can take that to the bank.

MR. STANTON: Tom Joyner has the next question.

MR. JOYNER: I have a question here from one of my listeners on TomJoyner.com, BlackAmericaWeb.com, Myra Lee of San Antonio, Texas. My 72-year-old father lives on Social Security. His total income is approximately $900 per month. He spends approximately $400 per month on medication, living him very little. Often, he will choose to not purchase medicine, but will elect to buy food instead. If elected, what plans do you have to assist the elderly in paying for medication that are vital to their continued good health, Myra Lee, San Antonio, Texas?

SEN. EDWARDS: I'll tell you the first thing we're going to do is, we're going to keep drug companies from running the government in Washington, D.C., which is what's going on there right now. You don't have to go any further than this prescription drug bill that just passed the Congress to know what's wrong there. Here we've got this serious issue, millions of seniors who desperately need prescription drugs, and look at what we've got. We got billions of dollars in your money going to HMOs, should have gone to seniors. We're driving seniors out of Medicare into HMOs, and then everything that could have been done to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, using the power of the government to negotiate a better price, allowing prescription drugs in from Canada, doing something finally about these drug company ads on TV, you've all seen these ads on TV, complete-you know who's paying for them, don't you, you're paying for them every time you go to the pharmacy. We tried to put all those provisions in to bring down the cost of prescription drugs for everybody, the drug companies were against all of them, so all of them came out. Here's the truth of the matter, this government, your democracy, does not belong to that crowd of insiders in Washington and their lobbyists, it belongs to you, and we're going to give it back to you when I'm president of the United States.

MR. STANTON: Senator, we took e-mail questions from viewers, and this is an e-mail question from Randy Butler from Charleston, South Carolina. You stated in your political speech that you have a plan to strengthen education. South Carolina ranked near the bottom in overall education. Please tell us how your education plan will help South Carolina, and other states right near the bottom in education?

SEN. EDWARDS: Well, we're going to do several things. One is, we're going to stop the damage being done by No Child Left Behind every day in our public schools across America. Second, we're going to have a longer-term, broader, bigger vision for public education in America, so that we don't continue the legacy of two public school systems. We still have two public school systems, they're not race- based now, they're based on economic conditions, but they have huge racial impact.

What we're going to do is this, first, as your president, I'm going to lead a national initiative to raise teacher pay across the nation so we get good teachers, and keep good teachers. We're going to give bonus incentive pay to teachers who will teach in less affluent areas. We're going to give scholarships to young people who will do the same thing. We're going to strengthen our early childhood programs so that every single child starts school, kindergarten, first grade, ready to learn. We're going to make after-school available to all those kids who desperately need it. And for the hundreds of thousands of young people who want to go to college, they can't go because they can't afford it, we're going to make college available to every young person who is willing to work for it.

MR. STANTON: You need to wrap.

MR. JOYNER: Senator John Edwards, thank you for being with us.

SEN. EDWARDS: Thank you all very much.

MR. STANTON: Senator John Edwards from North Carolina, our Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum: Dialogue with American Families, will continue after this short break.

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