2008 Presidential Corner: Biden, Huckabee campaign to climb to top echelon (part 1)
By Katelyn Friel
Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, currently serving his sixth term in the U.S. Senate, believes that “the next Democratic leader has to challenge the American people, tell them the truth, and trust them.”
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Biden has helped create a strategy to stop President Bush from sending more troops to Iraq and has also developed a detailed plan to bring the troops home without leaving mass destruction.
Ending the war is one of the issues Biden’s campaign highlights. Other areas he supports are enacting universal health care, empowering women to take charge and creating greater accessibility to higher education.
A graduate of the University of Delaware and Syracuse University’s College of Law, Biden serves as an adjunct professor at Weidner University’s School of Law.
Through understanding the demands for a “highly educated workforce,” Biden created the college ACCESS Plan that will allow middle class families to afford college tuition by creating a $3,000 refundable tax credit, equal to a $12,000 deduction; expand the maximum Pell grant from $4,000 to $5,000; and begin the college planning process when students are in eighth grade.
Apart from making higher education affordable, Biden is set to establish a universal health care system aptly entitled CARE. This proposal includes four steps: covering all children, providing access for adults, offering reinsurance for catastrophic cases, and encouraging prevention and modernization. By expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by 300 percent and extending medical coverage until children are at least 21, Biden’s plan is designed to cover the 9 million uninsured children.
Taking away the burden of those struggling to gain affordable health coverage, Biden is poised to allow Americans to focus on social issues that are hot topics of debate in America.
Since 1990, Biden has pursued putting an end to acts of violence against women and establishing equality in the workplace. With the passing of his Violence Against Women Act, Biden has shown that he plans to “change people’s lives.”
If elected, Biden will continue these pursuits of criminalizing violent acts against women and establishing a program where volunteer lawyers are paired with domestic violence victims hoping for justice. His plan includes supporting the growing war against breast cancer, one of the leading killers of women today, and promoting a woman’s right to choose.
Even though Biden is not among the top three front-runners in the Democratic race, it is not too late to become informed about his policies. It is one way to make a solid decision when choosing whom to support in the upcoming election.
