Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards on Wednesday unveiled a plan that he said would lift 10 million Americans out of poverty and cut the poverty rate.
On the first stop on a three-day swing through California - the top prize in next week's Super Tuesday round of electoral contests - Edwards criticised the Bush administration for accepting the current poverty level and said there was a "moral responsibility" to help fight the problem.
"For too long Washington has dealt with these problems by dismissing them as things that our country must live with," Edwards told a cheering crowd of mostly students packed into an auditorium at Pomona College.
"So many poor Americans are invisible where they are ignored, unseen and unheard. For so long, Washington has been able to dismiss poverty as a personal problem, a drug problem," he said. "Poverty has many causes but the biggest cause of all is the silence of people who can do something about it."
The North Carolina senator, racing to catch front-runner John Kerry before the crucial March 2 "Super Tuesday" round of 10 contests, diverted from his normal stump speech to focus mainly on the poverty issue.
Kerry has won 18 of the first 20 contests in the Democratic race to find a challenger to Bush and hopes to knock Edwards out of the race on Super Tuesday. But Edwards has vowed to fight on and has been focusing on his plans for job creation and vowing to heal divisions of wealth and race.
Edwards, who is trailing far behind Kerry in the polls in California, said he knew poverty was not a popular campaign topic but he felt it was important.
"We need specific ideas," he said, after criticising President George W. Bush for failing to win a "war on poverty".
Edwards, the son of a textile mill worker who was the first in his family to go to college, said he wanted to rid the country of the phrase "working poor".
"When our president is somebody who understands that a rising tide lifts all boats, America prospers and grows stronger and millions of Americans prosper," he said, noting that former President Bill Clinton helped reduce the poverty level.
"But when our president is somebody who believes that a rising tide is going to get the yachts out of the harbour, as this president does - Americans suffer," he said, adding that three million people had dropped below the poverty level since Bush took office.
To help reduce the number of people below the poverty level, Edwards proposed raising the minimum wage by at least $1.50, raising tax credits for the working poor and increasing earned income tax credits.
Later, at a speech in the central valley city of Fresno, Edwards was cheered by supporters waving signs like "Dean Voter, Anti-Bush Supporter". Edwards took a moment to praise Howard Dean, continuing his effort to woo supporters of the former Vermont governor who dropped out of the Democratic race this month.
Despite trailing Kerry 3-to-1 in California polls, Edwards' campaign chairman in the state, Herb Wesson, expressed confidence. "The senator has shown he's a strong closer," Wesson told reporters. "We are in this to win. We hope for a good debate tomorrow".
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