2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumJoe Biden’s greatest betrayal: The one Senate vote that makes it hard to support a Biden run
Any day now, Vice President Joe Biden is set to announce whether hell run for president, thus flummoxing the Democratic field and making life unnecessarily more difficult for the current pair of highly qualified frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Theres much to be said about why Biden should gracefully decline to run and, frankly, the left would do well to assert itself against his would-be candidacy. Not only would Biden give the traditional press another reason to manufacture a false equivalence between, say, Donald Trumps buffoonery and Joe Bidens penchant for blurting awkward things, but just beneath Bidens likability lurks a darker side that ought to summarily repulse the left, and especially anyone who was screwed by the Great Recession.
On several occasions throughout the past 15 years, the colossally powerful banking lobby unsuccessfully pushed for new legislation to tighten the rules pertaining to who can file for bankruptcy protection, and how much protection theyll receive. The first time in recent memory occurred in 2000, when then-President Clinton pocket-vetoed bankruptcy reform legislation at the request of First Lady Hillary Clinton, who had been convinced to do so by a little known Harvard professor and vocal reformer named Elizabeth Warren. Joe Biden, on the other hand, voted for the bill. Another bill in 2001 failed to pass with Bidens vote. But the 2001 bill was resurrected after George W. Bushs second inauguration.
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) was passed in April, 2005 by the U.S. Senate in a 74-25 vote, including the yea vote of Joe Biden, and was quickly signed by President Bush.
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/21/joe_bidens_greatest_betrayal_the_one_senate_vote_that_makes_it_hard_to_support_a_biden_run/
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)over a vote they don't agree with. What about the other 73 Senators? Each one represents their state, not non-state perfectionists who think the Senate is there to serve their minority agenda.
Biden represented his state there and there is no way to expect a Senator to do otherwise.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Senators are elected by their states.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)and Independent Jim Jeffords. The majority of Democratic Senators voted No and they were:
Akaka (D-HI)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Corzine (D-NJ)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)
closeupready
(29,503 posts)constituents in financial trouble, then you should do it.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Maryland Bank was the big Delaware Employer at the time. Lots of middle class and working class people worked for them.
Before that it was the DuPont Company and a lot of Delaware law favors them (this is why Delaware Corporate law is so easy on corporations).
Delaware is small and one company can become an outsize employer. And then the rest of the companies benefit from that as people have money from working for big Delaware Employer.
No, it would not be a few rich donors. It would be everyone working for that company and others seeing that company as bringing prosperity to Delaware.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Nonsense, and you know it.
You're obviously trying to obfuscate that vote. I'm not buying it. Someone else may, but I'm done with you.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Because you don't want to hear it does not make it not true.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Only morons don't want to vet every single qualified candidate.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)is disingenuous at best. Crappy article.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,708 posts)That being said I like Joe...I just like Hillary better...
closeupready
(29,503 posts)I do like him a lot, but this vote was inexcusable.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,708 posts)The Bankruptcy bill passes with him or without him... In the Thomas hearings it can be argued if not for Biden's (mis) handling of it Thomas could have been stopped.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)in the Senate in order to be brought to a vote, and he obliged.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,708 posts)That was a horrible vote...It precluded broke people from getting on with their lives and deterring them from declaring bankruptcy in the first place. It put many of them in a position of living with their debt, not getting a reset, and living with the constant harassment from debt collectors.
In the Bible there is a Jubilee where debts are forgiven.