Biden Warns of GOP Attack on Spending
by Josh Gerstein
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 at 4:41 PM
Senator Biden of Delaware sounded more like a sage political strategist than an attack dog when he appeared with Michelle Obama at a women-focused economic forum in Denver this morning.
After hearing heart-rending stories from several women who faced economic hardship, Mrs. Obama responded with vows to implement universal health insurance and to provide "the best education that this planet can offer."
"The money is here," she declared.
Mr. Biden, who is expected to be named this week as the party's vice presidential nominee, chimed in with a warning about the response the talk of expanding government programs was likely to trigger from the GOP.
"Look you know what's coming, folks, you know what's coming from the Republicans," he said. "They're going to talk about this….You're going to see on some of the shows after this is all over that Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, four distinguished governors, four incredible women with a story, all they talked about was how we're going to spend more money. 'It's typical tax and spend democrats.' That's what this is going to be. And they're going to try to scare the rest of America into the notion that we are going to go well beyond our economic reach. 'We're going to send those people who may not facing the same problems that you heard up here into the poor house.'"
Referring briefly to Mr. McCain as "my friend John," Mr. Biden said universal health care could be achieved simply by rolling back $100 billion in "tax breaks" Mr. McCain and other Republicans support for American families making more than $464,000 a year.
"What is the greater obligation of the country, to give some very, very wealthy people who are good people an additional $100 billion in tax cuts, or provide health care for every American and solve every story you heard up here?" Mr. Biden asked.
Mr. Biden and Mrs. Obama both said major savings could be achieved in health care by improving preventative care as a result of universal coverage. Mrs. Obama seemed to suggest that the savings would be so great that overall spending health care would decline.
"There's no reason why we can't have universal health care in this country," she said. "As somebody who's worked in health care profession, it is something that would save this country billions and billions of dollars, if you think about all of the preventative medicine that is not going on."
That's a dubious proposition, according to an article published earlier this year in the respected New England Journal of Medicine.
"Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are overreaching," three researchers who studied the issue, Joshua Cohen, Peter Neumann, and Milton Weinstein, wrote. "Although some preventive measures do save money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do not."
Studies have shown that some efforts, like incentives to stop smoking, are highly cost-effective, while widespread screening programs, such as tests for prostate cancer, often drive up costs by prompting unnecessary and sometimes counterproductive treatment.
The Sun monitored the economic discussion via a video feed from CNN.
Related Topics: General Election
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