Dear America,
The only Vice-Presidential Debate between Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and Sen. Joe Biden (D) was held on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at Washington University at St. Louis and moderated by Gwen Ifill. For those of you who were fortunate enough to watch it, what did you think? Overall, I thought it was very interesting. I found Biden to be passionate, honest, experienced, and knowledgeable. It’s too bad I can’t quite say the same thing about Palin. To me, her whole speech seemed so very cliché, as if she was just regurgitating lines she had been previously spoon fed. In all honesty, I can probably sum up the beginning of all of her responses in the entire debate to: “Let’s talk about energy.” “McCain is a maverick.” “When I was Governor and Mayor of Alaska…” “….put bipartisanship aside….” I found her responses to be ambiguous, vague, unclear, and most of time it was obvious she wasn’t knowledgeable enough to answer the specific question asked so she would just divert her answer into talking about something she knew well, which was either “energy” or what she did in Alaska to avoid answering. When the moderator asked her about mortgages and taxes she would talk about energy. When asked about foreign policy, she would talk about energy. When specifically asked to address McCain’s past history of his support of deregulation and his current position opposing it, she refused to and instead chose to talk about what she did in Alaska. In my opinion, she was quite hilarious.
Biden, on the other hand, most of the time answered the question asked of him. I guess that's the thing with politicians. It can be hard getting a straight answer out of any of them. But he was much more clear and concise. I was most interested in the questions asked of Biden that would relate most to me and my clients. When asked why people making $250, 000 would be taxed, he stated that it’s only fair because the middle class is struggling with no break in taxes. And when Palin tried to counteract that by stating that this would effect many small business owners, Biden shut her down by stating that indeed it would not because 95% of small businesses make less than $250,000 a year. There is definitely no arguing that point. I believe that this would be very beneficial to the poor. In this country, 1 in 6 households have zero or negative net wealth so why should they be taxed more severely than those holding the majority of the nation’s wealth (The State of Working America, 2008)? The NY Times (2002) once stated that “lack of income means you don’t get by; lack of assets means you don’t get ahead.” And many of my clients aren’t even able to get by not to mention getting ahead. Biden also stated that under Obama’s plan, the wealthy will pay no more taxes than they did under Reagan.
Another aspect of the debate that was of particular interest to me was the topic of healthcare. The 2 candidates have very different views on what this should look like for Americans. The Urban Institute did a wonderful analysis of both candidates’ healthcare plans. If you want a more detailed description of them than what I am providing here, please check it out at http://www.urban.org/ They can sum it up so much better than I ever could so here are snippets from their analysis.
“The McCain health care plan represents a philosophical advance over many other health care proposals, principally in its commitment to redistributing the current tax exemption for employer-based health insurance. However, the plan raises more concerns than it addresses. The plan would
1. provide a refundable tax credit that is more valuable to low-income workers than the current tax exemption for employer-based insurance, though the credit is not adequate to make coverage affordable for many;
2. make insurance coverage less accessible and affordable for those with high health care needs;
3. increase coverage among the currently uninsured through the non-group market but reduce the number already covered by employers, leaving about the same number of people uninsured; 4. have a high budget cost, at least in its early years.
In brief, McCain’s proposal would dramatically change how many Americans obtain health insurance coverage, make coverage less accessible for those with health problems, have a high budget cost, but have little effect on the number uninsured.”
McCain’s healthcare plan would be disastrous for the poor, low-income, and middle class and would do absolutely nothing to help increase the number of insured Americans. In essence, it would just be a pointless restructured way for those who already healthcare to keep receiving it.
So, let’s see what the Urban Institute (2002) says about Obama’s plan.
“Our general assessment of the Obama plan is that it would
1. greatly increase health insurance coverage but would still leave about 6 percent of the non-elderly population uninsured, compared to 17 percent today.
2. substantially increase access to affordable and adequate coverage for those with the highest health care needs, including those with chronic illnesses, by spreading health care risk broadly;
3. significantly increase the affordability of care for low-income individuals; and
4. reduce the growth in health spending through a broad array of strategies.
In short, Obama’s proposal contains the basic components necessary for effectively addressing the most important shortcomings of the current health care system, that is, limited coverage, inadequate risk pooling, and high-cost growth.”
From what I gather from the Urban Institute, neither plan is perfect and nor did I expect them to be. But it’s clearly obvious which plan is better for ALL citizens of this country, and that’s Obama’s. I just don’t understand why this is so hard for some people to comprehend. The research is right there for all to see. Healthcare gaps are one of the many things that hit those in poverty the hardest, and those who don’t have it are more likely to not seek health services until the situation becomes a crisis (Nashville Poverty Symposium, 2008). The U.S. Census Bureau (2007) found that 800,000 Tennesseans are uninsured which is more than the entire population of the city of San Francisco! Obama’s health care plan would help alleviate this concern for the poor not on in this state but across the country. I’m sure a lot of Republicans can’t even fathom not having health care. Do they know what its like to not be insured? To need to go to the doctor but you delay or don’t go at all because you simply can’t afford it? I really don’t think so.
Another interesting point was on the topic of the climate. Palin was asked what she thought the causes of the climate changes were and did she think they were man made. Her answer was pathetic. She went on to state that she didn’t think that the changes were man made, and she didn’t want to talk about the changes in the climate but would rather talk about we’re going to do about them. Biden came back with a vengeance by stating that the changes are definitely man made, and if you don’t understand the causes you won’t be able to find a solution which are my sentiments exactly. How can you talk about what you are going to do about a problem without talking about what’s causing the problem in the first place?
Next was foreign policy. Palin kept driving home the same old tired point as her buddy McCain by trying to establish Obama as unpatriotic because he voted to cut off support to the troops. But Biden pointed out that what both McCain and Palin keep failing to remember is that McCain voted the EXACT same way because it involved a timeline, in which we all know he is opposed to. Biden stated that we need to give more attention to Afghanistan instead of all of it to Iraq where we currently spend more in 3 weeks there than we have in 6 years in Afghanistan. Biden also stated that “this administration’s policy has been an abstract failure.” I agree as I’m sure both Democrats and Republicans would as well. But why is it that McCain and his constituents seem to have such a hard time comprehending that? Similar to what they tell substance abuse victims in treatment, the first step is admitting that you have a problem. McCain could use that advice because he needs to honestly admit that we have big problems here and the policies of the current administration nor his policies (which are very similar in detail) will solve them. It’s a HUGE problem when we’re spending $10 BILLION a MONTH in Iraq when they have a $80 BILLION SURPLUS compared to our $11.3 TRILLION DEFICIT (including the Bailout Mess). Have we been duped by Iraq?
I must say that I did enjoy the debate. But so far, both debates have just reinforced positions I already held on certain issues and definitely did not change my decision in who I will vote for. What about you?
Oh, I almost forgot. If you are in the mood for a great laugh, check out this link to Saturday Night Live's take on the lastest debate. Be sure to scroll down at and check out some of the previous videos on the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates as well. They are all equally hilarious!
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