Edwards Campaign Press Release - Edwards Launches Four-Day "Bringing It Home" South Carolina Bus Tour

During tour, Edwards will talk with voters about his bold plans to stand up for middle class families

Summerville, South Carolina – Today, John Edwards launched a four-day "Bringing it Home" bus tour across South Carolina to discuss his bold plans to fight for hard-working families and strengthen the middle class with voters in his home state of South Carolina. Edwards, who was born to working class parents and raised in small, rural Carolina mill towns, is running for president to make sure all Americans have the same chances to succeed that he has had. As president, he will take on the powerful, entrenched interests controlling Washington and help middle class families by making investments to strengthen the faltering job market, creating more middle-class jobs and making middle class necessities, like housing, energy, child care, and college more affordable.

"While powerful interests get every break imaginable from Washington, families here in South Carolina and across the country are working harder than ever just to get by," said Edwards. "We need to stand up for the middle class and American jobs before it's too late. This is personal for me. I saw what happened when the mill that my dad worked at closed and the jobs went somewhere else. We can change our country though. If we have the courage and backbone to take on the powerful interests, we can restore the middle class and make sure we leave our children a better future."

Edwards' plan to fight for hard-working families and strengthen the middle class will:

Take Action Now to Turn Around the Economy: With a weak job market and substantial risk of a recession, Edwards knows we need to take action to turn the economy around. Today he renewed his call on Congress to pass at least a $25 billion jobs plan immediately and be ready to pass $75 billion more if there is more evidence that we are entering a recession. His plan will accelerate our investment in a clean energy infrastructure, strengthen unemployment insurance, help states facing budget shortfalls and take strong action on the housing crisis.

Create Middle-Class Jobs of the Future: Edwards will reverse a generation of stagnant wages and create a new generation of well-paying jobs by enacting smarter trade policies, strengthening workers' right to organize, reforming the tax code to reward work, not wealth and investing in renewable energies, which will create at least 1 million new "green-collar" jobs.

Address the Middle-Class Squeeze: While wages are stagnant, the costs of middle-class basics are growing. Edwards has an ambitious agenda to help families make ends meet by helping families save for homeownership and retirement, guaranteeing true universal health care at lower Costs, helping families with rising energy costs, making college more affordable, offering universal preschool and expanding affordable child care.

As a sign of support and commitment to the state where he was born, Edwards was the first of the Democratic candidates to return to South Carolina following the New Hampshire primary. Edwards is the only candidate in the race who was born in South Carolina and he is the only Democratic candidate to ever win in a "red" state. Edwards leads the Democratic field in both campaign stops and money raised in the Palmetto State, and his campaign boasts an impressive statewide grassroots organization strengthened by deep support from Edwards' 2004 campaign.