Joe Biden in 2007 Democratic primary debate at Drexel
On Education:
For longer school day & school year, & 16-year minimum
I proposed it in 1987. We should go to school longer. We should have a minimum 16 years of education. We should be focusing on the socioeconomic disadvantaged, mostly minorities in inner cities. That’s something we’ve ignored. We pay no attention to it.
We pretend they’re the same circumstances as every other kid in America. They start off with half. Half of the education gap exists before they set foot in the first classroom. That should be the focus.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
On Energy & Oil:
Provide for emergency fuel assistance immediately
A big piece of that cost of high oil prices is risk. People are betting on things getting worse. That old joke, you know: When you’re in a hole, you should stop digging. Why do we continue to cause the price of oil to rise by continuing to rattle the
saber with Iran? Why do we continue to cause the price of oil to rise by a foreign policy that is absolutely moribund of any center? What we have to do immediately is to provide for emergency fuel assistance.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
On Free Trade:
Shut down any imports of toys from China
If I were president, I’d shut down any imports from China, period, in terms of their toys -- flat shut it down. Imagine if this was Morocco selling us these toys, we would have shut it down a year ago.
They have mortgage on our house because Bush mortgaged us to a $1 trillion to them. He is responsible for this. This is outrageous.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
On Health Care:
Help medical students find ways to finance their tuition
You got to help them pay off their education. They start off in the hole. They graduate and have these gigantic bills, 40,000 bucks a year. They graduate hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. You got to give them ability to write that off if they
engage in public service, move into areas where they need doctors, and get the insurance company out of looking over their shoulders & everything. They know the decisions to make and what they should be doing. They should be rewarded for their decisions.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
On Homeland Security:
Talks about nations acquiring uranium are more complicated
Q: Would you pledge that Iran will not develop a nuclear bomb while you are president?A: I would pledge to keep us safe. This is complicated stuff. We talk about this in isolation. The Iranians may get 2.6 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium. But the
Pakistanis have thousands of kilograms of highly-enriched uranium. If by attacking Iran to stop them from getting 2.6 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium, the government in Pakistan falls, who has missiles already deployed with nuclear weapons on them
that can already reach Israel, already reach India, then that’s a bad bargain. Presidents make wise decisions informed not by a vacuum in which they operate, by the situation they find themselves in the world. I will do all in my power to stop
Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but I will never take my eye off the ball. What is the greatest threat to the US: 2.6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium in Tehran or an out-of-control Pakistan? It’s not close.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Giuliani is truly not qualified to be president
The irony is, Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since Bush to seek the presidency is talking about any of the people here. There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11. There’s nothing else, and I mean this
sincerely. Here’s a man who brags about how he made the city safe. It was the Biden crime bill that became the Clinton crime bill that allowed him to do that. They wipe it out. He remains silent. The 9/11 Commission comes along and says the way to keep
your city safe is to do the following things. He’s been silent. He’s done nothing. Now he’s talking about he’s going to go in and he will demonstrate to Iran, he’s going to in fact lay down the law. This man is truly not qualified to be president.
I’m looking forward to running against Giuliani. With regard to my experience, in 1979 I led a delegation of 19 senators negotiating the START agreement with Brezhnev. I was deeply involved in Bosnia. I introduced the first public financing bill.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
On War & Peace:
A military action resolution on Iran is a bad policy
Q: Do you agree that the Kyl-Lieberman amendment was a declaration of war?A: It can be used as declaration. It’s not even about going to war. Let’s look at what happened from the moment that vote took place. Oil prices went up to $90 a barrel. Who
benefits from that? All this talk of war and declaring people to be terrorists droves up the price of oil. We have emboldened Bush, at a minimum, his talk of world war III--totally irresponsible talk. We’ve emboldened him to be able to move, if he
chooses to move. They’re terrorists. The fact that they’re terrorists on one side of the border or the other, we just declare them terrorists. That gives him the right to move against them. Thirdly, this has incredible consequences for Afghanistan
and Pakistan. We have no driven, underground, every moderate in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. This puts Karzai and Musharraf in jeopardy. The notion is it plays into this whole urban legend that America’s on a crusade against Islam. This was bad policy.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University
Oct 30, 2007
Page last updated: Nov 30, 2018