1 Oct 2020
Miracle of miracles: former Vice President Joe Biden actually showed up for the first “debate” (if you could call it that), stayed awake the whole time, and actually did a decent job of explaining his policies should he be elected President. The “debate” was marred by both men interrupting each other, which was started by Mr. Biden, but carried to greater lengths by President Donald Trump. As expected, the questions were tainted in favor of Mr. Biden, but that is no surprise.
As I said, we learned a fair amount about Mr. Biden’s plans if he were to be elected President. Herewith are four extracts (first in a series) from the “debate” (moderated by Mr. Chris Wallace) and interpretations of Mr. Biden’s responses. Explanatory clarifications are shown in square brackets. My interpretation of Mr. Biden’s comments are shown indented.
Biden Policy Example 1:
Mr. Wallace: President Trump, you nominated Amy Coney Barrett over the weekend to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the [Supreme] Court. You say the Constitution is clear about your obligation and the Senate’s to consider a nominee the court, Vice President Biden, you say that this is an effort by the President and Republicans to jam through and an appointment and what you call an ‘abuse of power.’ My first question to both of you tonight: Why are you right in the argument you make, and your opponent wrong and where do you think a Justice Barrett would take the court?
Mr. Biden: The American people have a right to have a say to who the Supreme Court nominee is, and that say occurs when they vote for United States senators and when they vote for the President of the United States. They’re not going to get that chance now because we’re in the middle of an election already — the election has already started.
Interpretation: Mr. Biden’s response infers that the previous election, which installed the current Senate and President are not relevant. Therefore, in his view, the entire Constitutional system of nominating and confirming justices is invalid. The truth is — the previous election determines who fills vacancies during those terms, not the people elected in the future. It may be objected that the Senate refused to confirm Judge Merrick in President Obama’s last term. That is true; however, it is customary (as Mr. Biden knows full well as a former member of the Senate) that the confirmation process goes forward only when the President and Senate majority are of the same party, as is the case here. Mr. Biden is actually rejecting the results of the 2016 election. Very well: but if he wins in November, shall we reject his election?
Biden Policy Example 2:
The “debate” then degenerated into a discussion about health care because Mr. Biden claimed that Barrett, if confirmed would abolish the Affordable Care Act. Part of the discussion went like this:
Mr. Biden: There are 100 million people who have pre-existing conditions, and they’ll be taken away as well. Those pre-existing conditions, insurance companies are going to love this. And so it’s just not appropriate to do this before this election.
Mr. Trump: There aren’t 100 million people with pre-existing conditions. … The hundred million people is totally wrong. I don’t know where you got that number. The bigger problem that you have is that you’re going to extinguish 180 million people with their private health care.
Mr. Biden: That’s simply not true.
Mr Wallace: Gentleman, we’re now into open discussion, open discussion. Yes, I agree.
Mr. Biden: Number one. He knows that — what I proposed. What I proposed is that we expand Obamacare, and we increase it, we do not wipe any — and one of the big debates we had with 23 of my colleagues trying to win the nomination that I won, were saying that Biden wanted to allow people have private insurance still, they can they do, they will under my proposal.
Mr. Trump: Not what you said. That is not what you said. Your party wants to go Socialist. I am going to dominate you, Joe, you know that.
Mr. Biden: I am the Democratic Party right now. The platform of the Democratic Party is what, I, in fact, approved of. What I approved of. Now here’s the deal. The deal is that this is going to wipe out pre-existing condition — by the way, the 20, the 200 million, the 200,000 people that have died on his watch. How many of those have survived? Over 7 million people have contracted COVID. What does it mean for them going forward if you strike down the Affordable Care Act?
Interpretation: This is a curious situation. First of all, it seems that Mr. Wallace is agreeing with Mr. Biden, but it is not clear in particular what he agrees with. But if the debate is between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, why is Mr. Wallace agreeing with anything? That is not his job (except as a Democratic Party operative). Mr. Biden gives three values for the number of casualties inflicted by the Wuhan virus — he calls out 20,000,000, 200,000,000, and 200,000. It is not clear which one Mr. Biden actually believes. Note also, the Mr. Biden disputes Mr. Trump’s claims about a government takeover of health care. He then states, ‘I am the Democratic Party right now.’ No, he’s not. Speaker Pelosi is the highest-ranking Democrat in office right now; Mr. Biden is simply a candidate. Mr. Biden seems to believe he already holds an office. This assertion comes back to bite him later, as shown below. But the most important thing here is that Mr. Biden calls out what his Democratic competitors accused him of in the Democratic primary, namely that they accused him of allowing private health insurance under his (Mr. Biden’s) plan. Pay attention to how Mr. Biden responded: he never did come out and say directly that private insurance would be permitted under his plan.
Biden Policy Example 3:
Mr. Wallace: One final question for you, Mr. Vice President, if Senate Republicans — we were originally talking about the Supreme Court here — if Senate Republicans go ahead and confirm justice Barrett, there has been talk about ending the filibuster, or even packing the court, adding to the nine justices there. You call this a distraction by the president, but in fact it wasn’t brought up by the President, it was brought up by some of your Democratic colleagues in Congress. So my question to you as you have refused in the past to talk about it: are you willing to tell the American people tonight, whether or not you will support either ending the filibuster or packing the court?
Mr. Biden: Whatever position I take on that, that’ll become the issue — the issue is, the American people should speak. You should go out and vote. We’re in voting now, vote and let your senators know how strongly you feel. Vote now, in fact let people know it is your senators. I’m not going to answer the question.
Interpretation: So there you have it. Mr. Biden says he is the Democratic Party, and yet refuses to answer a simple honest question by Mr. Wallace. It is apparent that Mr. Biden, if elected, intends to use whatever influence he has as President to both pack the [Supreme] Court with Marxist judges, and to end the Senate filibuster. If it were otherwise, surely he would have found the backbone to say so, since he ‘is the Democratic Party’.
Biden Policy Example 4:
Mr. Wallace: The second subject is Covid-19, which is an awfully serious subject, so let’s try to be. A million cases of Coronavirus in the United States and more than 200,000 people have died. Even after we produce a vaccine, experts say that it could be months or even years before we come back toward anything approaching normal. My question for both of you is based on what you have said and done so far and what you have said you would do starting in 2021, why should the American people trust you more than your opponent to deal with this public health crisis going forward. In this case, the question goes to you [Mr. Biden] first.
Mr. Biden: Look, 200,000 dead. You said over 7 million infected in the United States. We in fact have 5% or 4% of the world’s population, 20% of the deaths. 40,000 people a day are contracting COVID. In addition to that, about between 750 and 1000 people, they’re dying. When he was presented with that number he said ‘it is what it is’ — what it is what it is — because you are who you are. That’s why it is. The president has no plan. He hasn’t laid out anything. He knew all the way back in February how serious this crisis was. He knew it was a deadly disease. What did he do? He’s on tape as acknowledging he knew. He said he didn’t tell us or give people a warning of it, because he didn’t want to panic the American people. You don’t panic, he panicked. In addition to that, what did he do? He went in and he, we were insisting that the Chinese, the people we had on the ground in China should be able to go to watch, and determine for themselves, how dangerous this was. He did not even ask Xi to do that. He told us what a great job Xi was doing. He said we owe him a debt of gratitude for being so transparent with us. What did he do then? He then he waited and waited and waited. He still doesn’t have a plan. I laid out or I could just watch, exactly what we should be doing. And I laid out again in July, what we should be doing. We should be providing all the protective gear plus, we should be providing the money the House has passed in order to be able to go out and get people to help they need to keep their businesses open, open schools, that costs a lot of money. You should get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap, get people the help they need to keep their businesses open, and open schools that cost a lot of money.
Interpretation: Good news here: Mr. Biden got the number of Wuhan virus casualties correct. He then goes on to quote accurate statistics. But he forgot a basic principle of science: if you conduct more tests for the virus, the more you get positive results for the virus. Why? Because viruses spread; that’s what they do. Mr. Biden forgot another fact of science: a positive case does not equal a hospitalization or a death; testing positive for the virus does not lead to death in most cases. Mr. Biden claims that Mr. Trump never asked the Chinese to permit Americans to go there and investigate the virus; a claim that is patently false. Mr. Biden then describes what his plan involves: a) providing all the protective gear; b) provide money authorized by Congress to help people keep their businesses; and c) open schools. Mr. Biden may be referring to the plan passed by the House that would bail out California and New York for their incompetence; once again, Mr. Biden does not want to explain how bailing out managerial incompetence helps against the virus. Mr. Trump did the first two (the ones passed by both Houses of Congress as required); the third one is out of Mr. Trump’s control. Mr. Biden is in effect saying that the federal Department of Education should be in control of all schools in the nation.
Summary So Far:
- Mr. Biden believes that elections only matter when Democrats obtain or hold majorities.
- Mr. Biden believes that private health insurance should be abolished.
- Mr. Biden desires to pack the Supreme Court and abolish the Senate filibuster and supports it to whatever extent his powers as President permit.
- Mr. Biden would do less than Mr. Trump did as far as counteracting the Wuhan virus.
- Mr. Biden believes all schools should be under federal control.
