Cate Edwards, daughter of democratic vice presidential candidate, NC Sen. John Edwards, visited Winston-Salem State University last month. While at WSSU, Cate spoke to a small group of students in a brief question and answer session. She talked about how important it is for young people to vote and some of the long-term goals for the campaign such as education, healthcare, and foreign policy. Here are some of the topics that were discussed:
Q: Most college students believe that their vote doesn’t count. What would you say to those students?A: 537 votes made the difference in the last election. 537 is an important number to think about. It just shows that every single vote counts.
Q: If the Kerry/Edwards campaign is elected, where would you see the country in the next four years?A: One of the major priorities is that we need to be looked up to and respected but we need to be friends with the rest of the world. Other countries have an incentive to be on our side if we give them a reason to. My dad and John Kerry do have a vision- to be strong at home and respected in the world.
Q: What does the Kerry/Edwards campaign plan to do specifically for college students?A: They plan to increase funding for pell grants and add a $4,000 tax credit to kids going to college over four years. The tax credit will take a lot of the burden off of the rising tuition costs. Also, for two years of community service students will get four years of in state tuition paid for. This will help about 500,000 students at first.
Q: How is the campaign going to make that happen with the high debt?A: Every single plan is paid for. The tax credit plan is paid for by the way they administer loans to college students. Right now they are fixed at 3.5 percent. If you miss a loan, the government pays the bank and the bank gets the profit. Basically, changing the level in which the way loans are guaranteed and making it a variable rate so that the government is no longer paying the bank to make a profit on loans. The bank is making a profit, just not from the government. That saves about $12 billion.
Q: Does the two year community service apply to an out of state school?A: Yes. You get the equivalent of four years of in state tuition and you can use that at any institution whether it be out of state or private.
Q: Four Supreme Court justice seats are possibly going to be open. What kind of people are the Kerry/Edwards campaign looking to appoint and what kinds of considerations are taken into account for the appointment?A: I think it’s about someone who’s not political, but who is honestly interpreting our laws. This administration has tried to win a lot of right wing justices. A lot of the justices in this administration have political choices. It put things like our right to choose, civil rights laws and a lot of the things we believe in as a country at risk. Q: Being that the Kerry/Edwards campaign is elected, are the visions that are associated with the campaign are going to be implemented?A: All the plans are geared toward the next four years. The plans are very realistic. Things like universal health care, they didn’t say let’s give everyone health care. They said lets be realistic; lets get as many people as we can and then target everyone else. They are targeting the things that they really value and the things that are top priority. The major things should be implemented in the next four years.
Q: Can you speak about some of the things the campaigning has done or is continuing to do to sway the minority vote.A: Targeting minority constituencies as a campaign to make sure that they are part of this process is really important. A lot of minority voters don’t get out there and vote. I think that the issues are very similar. I think there are a few issues that African-Americans have and there are a few concerns that you might have that a different from the rest of the population. But I don’t think the issues is that different when it comes to jobs, affordable education, affirmative actions, and affordable health care. One of the big things is supporting minority business growth. Small businesses owned and run by minorities have been one of the biggest benefits to our growth as an economy and that’s been proven. Investing in small business and making sure that those funds are effectively available to minorities and making sure there is no discrimination in terms of who gets federal funds. Those are the major things. There are also things like minimum wage that disproportionately effect the minority population. Q: How much community service has to be done to get the four-year tuition. A: It’s working full time for your community. It’s about 35 hours a week and it can be paid work. The work is specified by the particular program.