Biden likely to run in 2016

[djohn2oo8]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/24/politics/joe-biden-president-campaign-2016-election-run/index.html

Elizabeth Warren as possible running mate

[PublicOption]

suits are getting nervous about Bernie.

[CosmicCowboy]

I've been saying Biden / Warren for weeks.

[baseline bum]

Clinton is a horrifically bad candidate and Sanders is unelectable. I have been saying not to sleep on Biden 2016 for years because of how shitty Hillary is. But Warren for VP would surprise me, Castro seems like a pick that would give them a better chance in the general election.

[DMX7]

It would be interesting if he were to pick a VP candidate before getting the party's presidential nomination.

[CosmicCowboy]

I think Castro would suck, but I'm from San Antonio.

[Th'Pusher]

I think Castro would suck, but I'm from San Antonio.
Suck at being a warm bucket of spit? It's all about the votes that he carries.

[hater]

:lmao Biden. He's a walking talking comic book character.

Mitt Romney has more chance than him. Hell insert al gore might as well. :lmao

[djohn2oo8]

:lmao Biden. He's a walking talking comic book character.

Mitt Romney has more chance than him. Hell insert al gore might as well. :lmao

Biden actually has a great chance. That's how bad this field.is.

[baseline bum]

Biden actually has a great chance. That's how bad this field.is.

Pretty much this. 2016 looks to be the worst election since Bush vs Gore.

[MultiTroll]

Clinton is a horrifically bad candidate
I'm not on either side but can tell you for every 5 Pugs that excitedly jack each other off over the email *scandal* there are 6 or 7 Dems whom they simply drive more solidly to vote for her.

Hillary - Biden?

[CosmicCowboy]

I'm not on either side but can tell you for every 5 Pugs that excitedly jack each other off over the email *scandal* there are 6 or 7 Dems whom they simply drive more solidly to vote for her.

Hillary - Biden?

No fucking way Joe accepts second fiddle to Hillary. This is his last shot to run.

[JoeChalupa]

I hope Joe does run. And don't start with all that plagiarizing crap.

[boutons_deux]

Joe Biden Backed Bills To Make It Harder For Americans To Reduce Their Student Debt

In recent months, Democrats have touted legislation to roll back that law, as Americans now face more than $1.2 trillion (http://www.ibtimes.com/americas-private-student-loan-debt-load-rising-despite-risks-costs-exceed-government-loans-1600860) in total outstanding debt from their government and private student loans. The bill is a crucial component of the party’s pro-middle-class economic message heading into 2016. Yet one of the lawmakers most responsible for limiting the legal options of Ryan and students like her is the man who some Democrats hope will be their party's standard-bearer in 2016: Vice President Joe Biden.

As a senator from Delaware -- a corporate tax haven (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/how-delaware-thrives-as-a-corporate-tax-haven.html) where the financial industry is one of the state’slargest employers (http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/delaware-had-highest-share-of-employment-in-financial-activities-in-january-2015.htm) -- Biden was one of the key proponents of the 2005 legislation that is now bearing down on students like Ryan. That bill effectively prevents the $150 billion (http://www.ibtimes.com/americas-private-student-loan-debt-load-rising-despite-risks-costs-exceed-government-loans-1600860) worth of private student debt from being discharged, rescheduled or renegotiated as other debt can be in bankruptcy court.

Biden's efforts in 2005 were no anomaly. Though the vice president has long portrayed himself as a champion of the struggling middle class -- a man who famously commutes on Amtrak and mixes enthusiastically with blue-collar workers -- the Delaware lawmaker has played a consistent and pivotal role in the financial industry's four-decade campaign to make it harder for students to shield themselves and their families from creditors, according to an IBT review of bankruptcy legislation going back to the 1970s.

Biden's political fortunes rose in tandem with the financial industry's. At 29, he won the first of seven elections to the U.S. Senate, rising to chairman (http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/chairman/previous) of the powerful Judiciary Committee, which vets bankruptcy legislation. On that committee, Biden helped lenders make it more difficult for Americans to reduce debt through bankruptcy -- a trend that experts say encouraged banks to loan more freely with less fear that courts could erase their customers’ repayment obligations. At the same time, with more debtors barred from bankruptcy protections, the average American’s debt load went up (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/09/how-americans-love-affair-with-debt-has-grown/63552/) by two-thirds over the last 40 years. Today, there is more than $10,000 of personal debt for every person in the country, as compared to roughly $6,000 in the early 1970s.

That increase -- and its attendant interest payments -- have generated huge profits for a financial industry that delivered more than $1.9 million (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00001669&type=I) of campaign contributions to Biden over his career, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Student debt, which grew as Biden climbed the Senate ladder and helped lenders tighten bankruptcy laws, spiked from $24 billion (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/10/07/the-growth-in-student-debt/) issued annually in 1990-91 to $110 billion in 2012-13, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

According to the Institute for College Access and Success (http://ticas.org/sites/default/files/pub_files/Debt_Facts_and_Sources.pdf), as of 2012, roughly one-fifth of recent graduates’ student debt was from private loans that “are typically more costly” than government loans.


But advocates for stronger protections for debtors argue that Biden was a driving force in creating the laws that made the problem worse.

“Joe Biden bears a large amount of responsibility for passage of the bankruptcy bill,” Ed Boltz, president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys

In 2005 (http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/Statement-by-AFL-CIO-President-John-Sweeney-on-Hou8) AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Trumka’s predecessor, said the Biden-backed bill “is unnecessarily harsh and is further proof that big business is steamrolling legislation through Congress that will negatively impact the economic interests of hardworking Americans.”

Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, just as allegations about students abusing bankruptcy courts were beginning to make headlines (http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_newspapers_v_posta.php). As recounted by Reuters’ Maureen Tkacik (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/us-student-loan-crisis-idUSBRE87E13L20120815), major newspapers started publishing anecdotes about students who took out large college loans and then quickly declared bankruptcy to avoid paying them off.

A 1977 Government Accountability Office report, however, challenged the stories implying students were systematically gaming the bankruptcy system. The analysis found that less than 1 percent of all educational loans were being erased in bankruptcy. In a 2014 report (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2332284), researchers at Harvard University and the federal government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau noted that the same GAO data at the time also “found that the majority of students were not filing for bankruptcy immediately upon graduation.”

But the legislation produced by Biden and his fellow conferees ended up including the provisions exempting government-sponsored educational loans from traditional bankruptcy protections for at least five years after a student graduates.

bankruptcy exemptions were extended to non-higher-education loans like those for vocational schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education (https://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/GEN1513.pdf).

the 1990 Crime Control Act (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/s3266/text), whose chief sponsor (https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/senate-bill/3266) was Biden. Though the bill was primarily focused on toughening criminal sentences (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19114), Biden’s legislation also included provisions that further lengthened the amount of time debtors would have to wait before they got access to traditional bankruptcy protections for their federal and nonprofit student loans.

Biden became a prominent Democratic supporter of legislation in 2000 to further restrict bankruptcy protections. The initiative was backed by one of Biden’s top supporters: Delaware-based credit card titan MBNA. Not only had the company’s employees collectively become one of his largest campaign contributors, the firm had employed Biden’s son Hunterright out (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/us/politics/25biden.html?pagewanted=all) of law school and later paid Hunter Biden consulting fees (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mbna-paid-bidens-son-as-biden-backed-bill/) while his father pushed the bankruptcy bill. MBNA's top executive had purchased Biden’s Delaware home for a price that Biden’s political opponents (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/225417/senator-mbna-byron-york) depicted as a sweetheart deal to a powerful legislator.

Biden helped the banking industry promote the negative portrayal of debtors. During the 2000 debate, hesaid (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2000-06-20/html/CREC-2000-06-20-pt1-PgS5383-8.htm) the goal of the bankruptcy bill he was backing was “to assure that those who have the ability to pay do not walk away from their legal debts.”

...

http://www.ibtimes.com/joe-biden-backed-bills-make-it-harder-americans-reduce-their-student-debt-2094664

[boutons_deux]

Country so sad for Biden's son?

What about the 5000+ sons and daughter he enthusiastically sent to die in Iraq?

"And there is no getting away from the important role you played in roping Congress into facilitating that war."

https://consortiumnews.com/2008/093008a.html

[101A]

Pretty much this. 2016 looks to be the worst election since Bush vs Gore.

I don't know:

Bush/Kerry

Obama/McCain

Obama/Romney

ALL have something to say about that.

Frankly, I've been voting since '88, and have YET to have a candidate to vote for I was excited about.

[Spurminator]

Obama/McCain was a pretty good one until Sarah Palin came in to dumb it down.

[CosmicCowboy]

McCain was terrible

[Spurminator]

McCain was terrible

Actually, you're right. I was thinking of 2000 McCain. 2008 McCain dumbed everything down even before Palin was picked.

[DarrinS]

Pretty diverse group running for that Dem nom

[boutons_deux]

Pretty diverse group running for that Dem nom

the big diff is that they are all serious people interested in governing.

[DarrinS]

the big diff is that they are all serious people interested in governing.

What happened to that O'Malley dude? Still unpopular for that "all lives matter" heresy?