John Edwards' Rural Recovery Act

In the 2004 presidential election, John Edwards was the only candidate in either of the two major parties to talk coherently about how to address the challenges facing rural America. Edwards has taken the lead again with his Rural Recovery Act proposal. You can find the full plan on his website, but here are some highlights of what the plan will do:

1. Restore economic fairness to rural America by helping small businesses thrive and grow.
   
   
2. Create a new energy economy in rural America by establishing the New Energy Economy Fund to jumpstart renewable energies.
   
   
3. Create fairness for family farmers by supporting strong antitrust enforcement, capping farm subsidies for corporate farms and supporting the packer ban and a national moratorium on new and expanded hog lagoons.
   
   
4. Strengthen rural schools by improving pay for teachers in rural and other hard-to-staff schools to help attract quality new and experienced teachers, and by creating digital learning opportunities.
   
   
5. Improve health care in rural America by rewriting the unfair Medicare and Medicaid funding formulas that punish rural states and communities, and supporting investments in telemedicine.
   
   
6. Rid rural America of methamphetamines by investing in the enforcement of drug laws in rural areas, help states make meth ingredients more difficult to get and expand programs that successfully treat addicts.

Regardless of your party affiliation, you should take a close look at Edwards' ideas. If you're not inclined to support him after reading them, you'll at least have some ideas to suggest to the candidate you support.