Edwards admits his big ideas are costly

More policy plans
Among other annual spending Edwards has promoted:

• $15 billion-$20 billion to help achieve his goal of ending poverty in the U.S. within 30 years. That includes $4.2 billion to increase the earned income tax credit, which refunds payroll and income taxes to low-income people; $4 billion to create 1 million short-term jobs to help the unemployed climb out of poverty; and $3 billion for $500 work bonds to help low-income workers save.
• $13 billion energy fund to develop and encourage more efficiency and renewable energy use. That includes $3 billion in tax credits for the production of renewable energy and $1 billion to help the U.S. auto industry modernize with the latest fuel-efficient technology. He said the fund would be paid for by selling $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and by ending $3 billion in subsidies for big oil companies.
• $1 billion rural recovery plan with initiatives like increased investment in rural small businesses, education, health care and resources to fight methamphetamine abuse.
• $5 billion in foreign aid to combat international poverty, including $3 billion to help pay for primary education for every child in the world.

Progressive positioning
Edwards also has promoted other ideas he has in the works, such as an education plan that includes his goal of eliminating financial barriers to college, a border security plan and federal spending on stem cells. But he's yet to announce details or costs.

Still, Edwards has been the most forthcoming Democratic candidate when it comes to describing the details of how he would like to run the country. His chief rivals - Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama - have offered few hints about their policy proposals.

The ideas are the centerpiece of Edwards' plan to position himself as the party's true progressive in the primary. He hopes the big ideas will attract the liberal Iowa caucus goers, online energy and labor endorsements that he's counting on to propel him to the nomination, said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane.

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"If the costs become a real issue, it will be a good problem to have for him because the only folks likely to make a real argument against it would be the Republicans, which means his strategy succeeded and he was the nominee," said Lehane, who worked in the Clinton White House and for Al Gore's candidacy in 2000.

Edwards said his spending proposals also would take precedence over eliminating the more than $200 billion deficit. He said he would work to lower the deficit and would not let it grow.

"Those things cost money, and there's a balance between that and the need to reduce the deficit," said the former North Carolina senator. "And so the threshold question is where is the priority? ... If we're going to do those things, I think it's very difficult to eliminate the deficit - in the short term, impossible."

He said he supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's requirement that legislation to cut taxes or boost federal benefit programs must be paid for with tax increases or other benefit cuts. But Edwards has yet to explain how he would pay for all his proposals. That will come later this year when he offers his tax plan, the campaign said.

"There's definitely a lack of numbers in some of his proposals," said Paul Weinstein Jr., chief operating officer at the centrist Progressive Policy Institute. "I think you should be commended for wanting to provide universal health care and to eliminate poverty. I think it would be more legitimate if he would identify some of the ways in which he would pay for these things."

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