Edwards pitches Clinton-era taxes

SAN DIEGO — Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said yesterday raising taxes for higher-income families back to their levels under the Clinton administration is a floor, not a ceiling, and he would consider even higher tax increases.

“What I believe is the starting place is to go back to the Clinton levels,” Mr. Edwards told reporters after addressing the 2,000 delegates to California’s state Democratic Party convention.

Four years ago, during his last presidential run, the former North Carolina senator drew boos and jeers from the California convention for his defense of the Iraq war. This year, he was back with a completely different message — both on the war and on how far he would go in rolling back President Bush’s legacy.

“I voted for this war, and I was wrong to vote for this war. I should never have voted for this war,” he said. “I am speaking out with every fiber of my being to get America out of Iraq. We need to be leaving Iraq, and we ought to start today, not two months from now.”

Iraq continues to dominate the discussion among Democrats and their presidential candidates heading into the 2008 primaries. This convention’s biggest applause was for Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat and a leader of Congress’ Out of Iraq Caucus, who told the crowd they must demand more from their candidates.

“Democrats, your presidential candidates and elected officials must stop nuancing, politicizing, sound-biting, benchmarking and playing it safe,” she said. “Democrats must have the courage to tell this president, ‘No, Mr. President, not another nickel, not another dime, not another soldier, not this time.’ ”

She was cheered so wildly that she made a curtain call.

Minutes later, Mr. Edwards spoke, urging congressional Democrats not to let Mr. Bush push them away from their war-spending bill, which sets a timeline for troops to begin pulling out.

“If the president vetoes this bill, they should send him back another bill with a timetable for withdrawal,” he said.

Speaking Saturday, the two leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both said Congress should try to find the votes needed to override Mr. Bush’s promised veto. But that is unlikely, given how far shy of the two-thirds threshold the Democratic bill came in both the House and Senate last week.

Addressing the convention after Mr. Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, another presidential hopeful, said it’s time to take a different approach and vote to rescind the authority to go to war that Congress granted in 2002 — exactly the vote Mr. Edwards was apologizing for.

“The Congress authorized the war; now they should deauthorize it,” Mr. Richardson said.

He also disagreed with Mr. Edwards on taxes, saying he is proud to be a tax-cutting governor and arguing that Democrats are often too quick to turn to tax increases.

“Whenever we have solutions, we want to tax,” he said in his own press conference after his speech. “I’m different.”

He said he would not allow the Bush tax cuts to become permanent but said he would shift some of the higher revenues to go to further tax cuts for the middle class and for businesses that pay the prevailing wage. And he said taking care of the deficit is a top priority.

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