Election 2008 - Candidate Spotlight

Joe Biden

Joe Biden, a U.S. Senator from Delaware, is not currently a Democratic front runner in the 2008 presidential campaign. However, having championed his plans regarding the War in Iraq, climate change, health care and education, he has managed to stand out, even among the front runners, as a bold and charismatic politician.

When it comes to Iraq, Biden wants our troops out of the country but realizes that there is much to be done before that can happen. Therefore, Biden has a Five Point Plan for Iraq, which proposes a solution to the sectarian violence that has risen in the area and provides a way for the United States to remove itself from the country.

According to his Web site PlanForIraq.com, Biden says that "there is no purely military solution to the sectarian civil war. The only way to break the vicious cycle of violence- and to create the conditions for our armed forces to responsibly withdraw - is to give Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds incentives to pursue their interests peacefully."

With his Five Point Plan, Biden aims to establish one central government in Iraq, but to allow the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to have their own autonomous regions within the country. The second point of the plan is to have the different sects share oil revenues.

As stated on the site, the third point calls for a "regional security conference where Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, pledge to support Iraq's power sharing agreement and respect Iraq's borders." The gradual withdrawal of American troops is outlined in Biden's fourth point. This would have most of the soldiers out of Iraq by the summer of 2008, except for a small force to "strike any concentration of terrorists, help keep Iraq's neighbors honest and train its security forces."

Healthcare is another important issue to Biden. His CARE plan proposes that there are four steps that need to be taken on healthcare; covering all children, providing health care access to uninsured adults, reinsurance for "catastrophic" cases and encouraging the prevention of disease and injury and modernization of medicine.

Biden also wants to move toward a sixteen year school system, where children can have two years of preschool and can also afford at least two years of college. He would also focus on supporting and retaining teachers by improving their pay and funding mentor programs. The last part of Biden's education plan is to reduce class size.

"I want a country where we expect much from America's children. Every child must graduate from high school. Every child should go on to higher education. We are losing too many children in this country, wasting too much talent, leaving so much potential untapped. We know what we need to do" Biden said.

According to his Web site, "Joe Biden would hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce the average class size to 18 students, particularly in the early grades."

Safety and security has been a crucial issue for all the 2008 presidential candidates. Biden plans to implement the plan laid out by the 9/11 Commission. This would cost more, but Biden's solution includes taking back a year of tax cuts for Americans who make more than $1 million a year and put that money into a Homeland Security trust fund. Using this money, all of the cargo containers entering American ports could be screened, local counter-terrorism units could be created in large American cities, more local police officers could be hired, and more.

When it comes to climate change, Biden says, "We must act." Biden believes that climate change is not only a threat to the global environment, but to our national security.

As president, Biden would have the United States rejoin climate change negotiations, restoring U.S. leadership on climate change. He would also cap emissions in the United States, so that carbon emissions are reduced to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Biden would also like to increase the use of renewable energy and renewable fuel sources. He would raise fuel economy standards so that the automobiles in the U.S. can reach 40mpg by 2017. In accordance, Biden would invest in building highly efficient vehicles, such as hybrid cars.

Finally, Biden would require the federal government to strive for energy efficiency. He would do this, for example, by having the federal government purchase 10 percent renewable electricity by 2010. He would also encourage American citizens to be energy efficient by providing funding to states to educate citizens about energy efficiency and giving incentives for commercial buildings and manufacturers to strive for energy efficiency.