Did you know Biden's wife & daughter were killed in 1972, just

[napi21]

after he was elected to the Senate? He's on "Road to the White House" now, and while mingling with the crowd people were talking to him about health care, and he lapsed into the sotory of how his wife and 2 kids were Christmas shopping Dec. 1972, and a semi broasdided their car/ His wife and daughter were both killed and his son was seriously injured. He was in a body cast and I don't recall all the other injuries, and how long his was in the hospital. So sad to have experienced such a loss and he was only 30 years old. His wife must have also been very young as well as both kids.

He was explaining how much that taught him about hospitals, doctors, and nurses, and how all the changes to the system that have happened over the years, it's made health care coverage an emergency today.

[ElizabethDC]

1. I had heard that

Joe was a single dad with 2 sons at the age of 30, and commuted to work every day from Delaware to Washington (he made it home every night so that he could be with the kids). Pretty incredible.

[hlthe2b]

2. Wow... and he had the aneurysm a few years back too...

He certainly has learned about tragedy, loss and reliance on an increasingly decimated health care system...

[Wilms]

3. Which makes his support of the bankruptcy bill even harder to understand.

How many families in financial trouble over medical bills suffer all the more? (That question is for Joe.)

[napi21]

9. I forget a lot about the arguments during the bankruptcy bill negotiations.

I really wish they had put a medical emergency exemption in it. I can also tell you my son haas 3 people in his neighborhood who are prime examples of why there ever was a bankruptcy bill.

Just as an example, one was married, no children, made $78,000 a year, and his wife worked at a pizza shop. They sspent the last five years buying everything that caught their fancy. A commercial power washer, top of the line Troybuilt rototiller, two new cars, a commercial log splitter, a 24 HP tractor, a 60" TV, and on and on. In addition to that, they ate out an average 5 nights a week, and it wasn't McDonalds! All was put on credit cards and they maxed out 4 of them. They refinanced their house 3 times to pay off the cc's, only to max them out again. They finally declared bankruptcy because they owed $62,000 on cc's and had a $1,700 house payment too. They're all pissed off now because he makes too much money to be permitted to file Chapter 7, and he's been told by the courts he's got to do the payment plan and pay off the debt.

The other two neighbors are in similar circumstances.

I can tell you, if I were a Senator, I would have voted for a bill to prevent people like that from declaring bankruptcy and dismissing their debt too.

I know there are a lot more emergency issues Congress has to deal with right now, but I'm hoping in the future they will add a medical exemption to that law.

[SoCalDem]

12. For every one like "them", there are probably 50 who lost jobs or health

and were "pushed" into bankruptcy.

Look at your own finances..now imagine you get laid off next week and cannot find work for 2-3 months.. How long would YOU last:)

There was a time in America when people could expect to choose their line of work, and could expect to stay there as long as they were able, they would get regular raises.. they got paid vacations..they knew they had a pension coming to them after 25-30 years..they could afford health care without even having insurance..they could afford to buy a modest home.. they could afford to send their kids to college (and have them LIVE in a dorm). they could afford to buy a new car every few years..and they could do it all on a blue collar salary

This could all be done on ONE paycheck per family.. and back then people often had 4-5 kids..

The apple is shinier now..but it's rotten to the core.

[napi21]

16. I'm probably the worst person you could say things like that to.

I've already lost two jobs due to management changes and the new management just wanted to bring in their own people. I do charge EVERYTHING I buy on a CC, but I pay it off every month so I don't care about the interest rate. I worked very hard and made extra payments so it's now paid off. I have some obscene credit limits on my credit cards, but I ONLY charge an amount I can pay off at the end of the month.

Yes, we have health insurance, not what it used to be 20 years ago, but better than nothing. I broke my ankle last Sept. and had to pay out of pocket $2,500 until I reached the cap. I worked out a payment plan with the Drs. and hospital and paid it off over several months.

I'm sorry, I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who can't control what they spend. And for those who lost their jobs, the Chapter 7 laws still apply. If you don't have income above $35,000 a year (I think) they can still have their debts erased.

[BlooInBloo]

19. Certain sorts of people don't care in the least what the true stats are....

... if there's even ONE "frivolous" bankruptcy, they're fine with screwing everyone else, and helping out the big credit companies.

[dflprincess]

20. About half the bankruptcies in the U.S. are because of medical bills

the next two biggest (and I don't remember the percentage) reasons are job loss or divorce. It's actually a fairly small percentage that are the result of the situations described in the above post.

[Matsubara]

11. It's very easy to understand.

Biden's number one campaign contributor: Predatory lender MBNA

$147,700

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00001669&cycle=2004


And from the New York Times in 2003:

The company also has ties to Senator Biden's son, R. Hunter Biden, a lawyer in Washington. Hunter Biden joined MBNA as a management trainee after graduating from Yale Law School and rose to be an executive vice president. Now a partner in Oldaker, Biden & Belair, a lobbying and law firm, he receives a $100,000 annual retainer from MBNA to advise it on "the Internet and privacy law," Mr. Freeh said. He added that Hunter Biden was not a registered lobbyist and did not lobby on legislation for the company.


Ohe yeah, and about ten years ago, he sold a house at an above-market asking price - to an MBNA exec, of course. Thanks, again, working poor slobs paying 21% interest!


Way to get your back scratched, eh, hairplugs?

If anything, reading about what happened to his family makes Biden an even more pathetic figure. You'd thing something like that would have brought about a little more growth and introspection, not just more vanity and expediency. I don't expect every democrat to be a Kucinich, but I do expect a bit better than Biden.

[trudyco]

22. I agree - makes his support even more unforgiveable -nt

[SoxFan]

4. More on Biden

Actually, both of his sons (Beau and Hunt) were seriously injured, and spent months revovering.

Biden considered declining to take his seat in the senate. He was concerned that he would not be able to be a father and a senator, and if he had to make the choice, his family would come first. After a while, his parents and siblings talked him out of it, and they pitched in to take care of the kids while Biden commuted back and forth between Wilmington and Washington every day. To this day, Biden has never owned a home in Washington, DC.

As a young senator, Biden was "adopted" by some of the old bulls of the senate, such as Hubert Humphrey, Bill Fulbright, and, oddly enough, Strom Thurmond. They helped Biden keep his focus during the tough early times.

Biden gets a lot of grief from people on DU, but he's a man of character. Some of our Republican "family values" windbags would learn a lot from Joe Biden.

[etherealtruth]

5. thanks for the info ...

Biden was "my" senator for a while.

Though I don't agree with everything he does, I "kinda" like the guy and this upped my respect for him considerably.

[H2O Man]

7. I like Biden.

I know he isn't perfect, but he has some qualities that I think are worth progressive democrats looking closer at.

[stevedeshazer]

10. I very much favor his Iraq partitioning plan

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12572371/

I really can't see how else the chaos in Iraq can end.

There's a lot of hostility from the left directed at Joe Biden, but on this count I really believe he is absolutely correct.

How else can we end the sectarian violence other than allocating land and resources to the competing tribal and religious factions in Iraq?

Isn't that what ended the (most recent) war in the Balkans?

It's hard for a progressive guy like me to get beyond his larger-than-life personality and his ties to banking and insurance interests, but he gets the international aspects of U.S. foreign policy, and we sure as hell need that more than ever.

I like him, too.

[Matsubara]

13. I don't like him. But I do concede that he's smart and has good people skills.

And yes, the partition plan is a good idea.

But a better plan would have been to have never started an illegal and unnecessary invasion in the first place.

But Biden voted for it. If that was the only strike against him, it would be one thing, but it's one of MANY.


Of all of the candidates, he is the only one that I definitely will not support in the primaries.

If he's elected, he would probably be an effective president, but I think he would be no further left than Bill Clinton ideologically, and I've had it up to here with pugs and quasi-pugs.



There are some good things about Biden, sure. But there are some good things about Rudy Giuliani, too, but you won't ever see me vote for him.

[stevedeshazer]

14. I don't think you have to worry about him being the nominee

I do think he'd make a good Secretary of State.

Say, what are those good things about Rudy?

Just wondering... :)

[Matsubara]

15. Pro-choice, likes the gays, like to play dressup...

And I do think he stood up as a leader on 9-11, while Bush cowered in the corner. His behavior on that day was exemplary, as opposed to POS Bush, who strutted into ground zero a few days later and yelled a bunch of jingoistic bullshit into a megaphone.

[KT2000]

8. Thanks for the info

Biden as president would be OK with me.
He seems to have common sense as well as experience in int'l affairs.
He also communicates in a way that those less political appreciate - he just says it!

He really does need to distance himslef from the banks and credit co. but anyone from Deleware is in the same boat.

[shenmue]

6. How awful

:cry:

I didn't know that.

[DemReadingDU]

17. Interesting background, thanks

K&R

[bdamomma]

18. oh, that's terrible. I never heard that before.

[UTUSN]

21. Any Dem is a more empatheic human than ANY Rethug. n/t