A: Absolutely, positively, unequivocally. As president, that's what I would push for. The idea that 12 years of public education is sufficient in the 21st century is ridiculous. I have a thing called a college access program. I would allow every single solitary family making up to $150,000 to be able to have a refundable tax credit of $3,000 per student. Everyone under $50,000 now qualifies for a Pell Grant. I would change them from $4,300 to $6,300 plus the refundable tax credit. It would mean every child in America, every qualified person in America, under an income under $50,000 would have $9,300 to go to any state university in their state in America for four years. But we have to change our mind-set here, and lead with early education, with pre-Head Start and Head Start. The whole Biden plan for starting early and college as well, that whole plan costs less than $18 billion a year.
A: Yes, I do.
Q: How would you pay for it?
A: I would pay for it by three ways. 1) I start off dealing with going into a prevention-and-treatment mode here that required us to simplify and modernize the system. That could save $100 billion a year in redundancy that goes on right now. 2) I would immediately provide for catastrophic health insurance for all Americans, and I'd immediately move for insuring every single child in America. That would cost less than what the top 1% tax break costs, $85 billion a year. 3) Then what I would do is I would move to insuring everyone through one of two vehicles. Either a system we work out among the stakeholders, an agreement that everyone essentially gets Medicare from the time you're born or a system whereby everyone can buy into the federal system. Those who don't have the means to buy in, then you subsidize them into the system. I would pay for that by direct revenues.
A: Absolutely. We have to view it in three ways. Prevention. You know, an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure is real. We virtually do not have anything that rewards those people who are engaged in their physician's or insurer's companies that emphasize prevention. The second thing we have to do is we have to provide for changing the way we think of it as an employer-based system totally. We have an overwhelming opportunity now to get universal health care, because business needs more than labor or business needs it more than the uninsured. They cannot compete internationally. We have to think about it really differently, but the delivery of health care we have to think about differently, too. The idea we're not going to be opening up little clinics in shopping centers all across America that is going to generate avoidance of operating of emergency rooms is just not reasonable.
During his impassioned address, Biden credited labor unions for building the middle class, and thus "building the United States as we know it. If the middle class is doing fine, everybody does fine," he said. "The wealthy get very wealthy, and the poor have a way up."
"This guy has done things and put in jeopardy the lives and occupations of people in other parts of the world," Biden said. "He's made it difficult to conduct our business with our allies and our friends. ... It has done damage."
Biden also claimed the leaks have had a direct impact on his own work when meeting with world leaders. "There is a desire now to meet with me alone rather than have staff in the room," he said. "It makes things more cumbersome."
Biden said the Justice Department is exploring possible legal action against Assange. His comments echoed those made by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell earlier this month. "I think the man is a high-tech terrorist," McConnell said.
A: Absolutely not. I think it's the wrong strategy. We should be drawing down troops now. We should be in the middle of the 2008, down to 30,000 to 40,000 troops with an end date of getting out of there based upon a political settlement where you set up a federal system there.
Q: What is it Petraeus believes in that you don't?
A: I think Petraeus believes in what I believe in, that his troops will do whatever they're asked. I think Petraeus doubts whether or not militarily he can reach a political solution. He's given a military mission to try to stabilize as much of the country as he can. As a military man, he's doing what he's asked to do, but he knows it will not solve the problem. There is no military solution to Iraq that will allow us to leave without leaving chaos and a civil war behind.
"Middle class means you get to own your home. It means you get to send your kid to a decent school, that if they do well and they want to go to college, you can afford to send them to college. It means being able to take care of your parents if they get sick. It means maybe being able to save enough so you hope your kids never have to take care of you."
The vice president responded to "pollsters" who he said claim the middle class no longer cares about owning a home or sending their kids to college: "The American people have not stopped dreaming. The American people have not walked away from what they believe they are entitled to. Just give them a chance--no handout, just give them a chance," Biden said. "Once you give Americans a chance they have never, never, never, never ever let their country down."
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The above quotations are from Columns and news articles on the Huffington Post blog.
Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles on the Huffington Post blog. Click here for other excerpts by Joe Biden. Click here for a profile of Joe Biden.
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