Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stays atop most nationwide polls earlier than the primary votes are solid subsequent month within the Dem
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stays atop most nationwide polls earlier than the primary votes are solid subsequent month within the Democratic presidential major. Earlier than the Iowa caucuses, The New York Occasions reviewed current statements he made defending his decades-long profession, stressing his standing within the black group and highlighting his perceived energy on overseas coverage. Right here’s a reality examine.
what the info are
Mr. Biden tried to defend his report on Social Safety and contraception with questionable claims.
What Was Stated
Antonia Hylton, a reporter for Vice Information: “Do you suppose, although, that it’s truthful for voters to query your dedication to Social Safety when prior to now you’ve proposed a freeze to it?”
Mr. Biden: “No, I didn’t suggest a freeze.”
— at the Brown & Black Democratic Presidential Forum last week in Iowa
False. In 1984, confronted with funds deficits below the Reagan administration, Mr. Biden was a co-sponsor of an amendment with two Republican senators that froze for one yr practically all navy and home spending, together with cost-of-living changes to Social Safety advantages.
Pressed by Ms. Hylton after his inaccurate denial, Mr. Biden mentioned that his proposal got here “within the context of we saved Social Safety throughout the Reagan administration” and famous that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a liberal stalwart, voted for the plan.
When President Ronald Reagan entered workplace in 1981, Social Safety was operating low on funding and Mr. Reagan did suggest to make deep cuts to benefits. However he in the end endorsed and signed bipartisan legislation in 1983 — which Mr. Biden and Mr. Kennedy both voted for — to guarantee the fund’s persevering with solvency. Modifications included suspending cost-of-living changes, and the Biden marketing campaign mentioned that the previous vp was referring to this episode.
“It’s simple to consider Biden thought minor cuts in this system within the quick run would characterize a greater consequence than the a lot larger cuts President Reagan and his advisers appeared to favor,” Gary Burtless, a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment, mentioned. “In these days, ‘compromise’ was not a grimy phrase within the eyes of most members of Congress.”
Mr. Biden’s personal freeze plan, although, got here “properly after the Social Safety rescue was over,” mentioned Paul C. Mild, a professor at New York College who wrote a book on the 1983 effort.
Fairly, the plan was one other step in a decades-long “mating dance between centrist Democrats and Republicans to provide you with a grand cut price on the deficit,” mentioned Eric Laursen, writer of “The Folks’s Pension: The Wrestle to Defend Social Safety Since Reagan.”
Mr. Biden said as a lot in April 1984, as he decried “gargantuan deficits” and argued that not accepting a one-year freeze to cost-of-living changes would result in a “a elementary debate over whether or not or not there ought to be COLAs in Social Safety” in any respect. The modification that he co-sponsored in the end failed by a vote of 65 to 33 (Mr. Kennedy voted towards it).
Mr. Biden’s general report on Social Safety consists of each actions that may gradual or scale back spending and people who would shield advantages.
He voted for an modification in 1995 to require a balanced federal funds that he and different Democrats warned would endanger the Social Safety fund. He supported raising the eligibility age for Social Safety in 2007. And he brokered a deal with Republican lawmakers in 2010 that prolonged the Bush-era tax cuts and created a vacation for the payroll tax, which funds Social Safety, that quickly decreased the tax by two share factors.
However Mr. Biden additionally voted for an modification to that balanced funds laws in 1995 that may have excluded Social Safety from its goals. From 2001 to 2008, he repeatedly voted towards privatizing Social Safety and for bettering the belief fund’s solvency, according to the Alliance for Retired Americans, an affiliate of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. that represents union retirees. In 2008, Mr. Biden’s final yr within the Senate, he obtained a lifetime rating of 96 out of 100 from the group. He spoke out towards Social Safety privatization within the 2012 vice-presidential debate and his present plan vows to protect the safety net.
What Was Stated
Lauren Kelley, New York Occasions Editorial Board member: “You additionally initially argued for higher exemptions to the contraception mandate in Obamacare. So I feel there’s some concern on the market —”
Mr. Biden: “No, I didn’t, by the best way.”
— in an interview with The New York Occasions Editorial Board revealed Jan. 17
That is disputed. The Obama administration announced in January 2012 a rule requiring most insurance policy to cowl contraception freed from cost, together with for the workers of hospitals, faculties and charities run by Catholic teams.
The making of the rule sparked an inside debate within the White Home. Reporting from information retailers solid Mr. Biden as a part of the camp arguing for a much less…