Candidate Positions

Original source: http://www.speculativebubble.com/politics/joe-biden.php

SEN. BIDEN: I agree with everything that was said here. But the bottom line here is that eliminating the tax breaks is not going to keep jobs here in America. We’ve got to make it more attractive to have jobs here in America and for corporations to be here.

You’ve got to take the burden off the corporations with a health care system that’s universal, so we’re not at a competitive disadvantage. You’ve got to have a better education system to provide for the highest-tech jobs that we educate our folks for, so we’re not importing 400,000 computer engineers to work in Silicon Valley. And you’ve got to deal with the innovation and infrastructure needs in this country — tunnels, bridges, et cetera — which we haven’t done to make us more competitive.

Original source: http://www.cfr.org/publication/13392/

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for legislation to stop climate change. In February 2007, after the release of the IPCC report, Biden urged fellow lawmakers and President Bush to take action, saying, ?We have wasted the past six years on the sidelines of international negotiations and our leadership is needed to produce a global solution.?

Biden cosponsored the Clean Power Act of 2005, a bill which would have implemented a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions had it become law. With Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Biden has proposed two Senate resolutions on global warming. They put forward the Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution (PDF), passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2006. More recently, Biden and Lugar proposed Senate Resolution 30, which calls for the United States to comply with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and to establish a ?bipartisan Senate observer group? to monitor international climate change negotiations.

Original source: http://world-poli-ticker.blogspot.com/2007/02/election-2008-joe-biden-d.html

Education: Education is key if America wants to compete globally. Every American should have access to higher education. Opposes school vouchers. Increase tax deductions for tuition. Expand government grants and student loan accessibility. Start high school students early applying and saving for college. Utilize technology to improve the systems. Favors education over corporations. Favors smaller class sizes. Opposes private tutors. Favors national education standards.

Original source: http://www.alphecca.com/mt_alphecca_archives/003038.html

But if you need another reason and, like me, you support gun rights, well just know that Joe Biden doesn’t.

1. He actually wrote the 1994 Crime Bill that contained the “assault weapons ban” that tried to banish “scary looking guns” that were no different than ordinary ones except for some cosmetics.

2. He’s rated “F” by the NRA.

3. He issued a press release in support of the Million Moms March.

4. He voted against the “Protection of Lawful Commerce…Act” preventing frivolous lawsuits against firearm manufacturers.

Original source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15932967/
Biden, who favors tightening the U.S.-Mexico border with fences, said immigration is driven by money in low-wage Mexico.

“Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy where they have the greatest disparity of wealth,” Biden said. “It is one of the wealthiest countries in the hemisphere and because of a corrupt system that exists in Mexico, there is the 1 percent of the population at the top, a very small middle class and the rest is abject poverty.”

Unless the political dynamics change in Mexico and U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants are punished, illegal immigration won’t stop. “All the rest is window dressing,” he said.

Original source: http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/06/08/stemcellpush.php

June 4, 2004

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write to urge you to expand the current federal policy concerning embryonic stem cell research.

As you know, embryonic stem cells have the potential to be used to treat and better understand deadly and disabling diseases and conditions that affect more than 100 million Americans, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and many others.

Embryonic stem cells can be derived from in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos that are developed in excess of those needed for the procedure used to enable infertile couples to have children. The IVF process results in more embryos than are needed by the couple. There are estimated to be more than 400,000 IVF embryos, which are currently frozen and will likely be destroyed if not donated, with informed consent of the couple, for research.

We very much appreciate your words of support for the enormous potential of this research, and we know that you intended your policy to help promote this research to its fullest. As you know, the Administration’s policy limits federal funding only to embryonic stem cells that were derived by August 9, 2001, the date of the policy announcement.

However, scientists have told us that since the policy went into effect more than two years ago, we have learned that the embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federal funding will not be suitable to effectively promote this research. We therefore feel it is essential to relax the restrictions in the current policy for this research to be fully explored.

Among the difficult challenges with the current policy are the following:

 Original source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05320/606897.stm

Look we should not back off our position that a woman has a right to choose at some early point in her pregnancy. Everybody forgets what Roe v. Wade says. … A lot of the womens’ groups don’t really support Roe v. Wade when they say a women’s right to choose. That’s not what Roe v. Wade says. In the first three moths, it is primarily the women’s right; second three months, the state has an interest in the health of the woman; the third three months, the state has an interest in the health of the fetus.

And so I vote against partial birth abortion. I’m one of those guys, if you look at my voting record, the womens’ groups don’t like me and the right-to-lifers don’t like me.