Biden: Bush 'brain dead' on drug bill

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Wed, 20 Oct 2004 22:33:23 -0700

Subject:Biden: Bush 'brain dead' on drug bill

 

<http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/10/20bidenbushbraind.html>

 

 

 

Biden: Bush 'brain dead' on drug bill

Del. GOP says senator's remark went too far

By MIKE BILLINGTON / The News Journal

10/20/2004

 

Sen. Joe Biden rallied supporters for John Kerry's presidential

campaign Tuesday with a blistering attack on Bush administration

policies that he said hurt retirees and working-class Americans.

 

Biden criticized the administration's prescription drug policies and

their impact on consumers. " He is brain dead, " Biden said of the

president. His comment was greeted with loud applause at the UAW Local

435 union hall in Cranston Heights but quickly drew the ire of

Delaware Republicans.

 

" Sen. Biden should be ashamed of his below-the-belt rhetoric and

personal attacks on the president, " said David Crossan, executive

director of the state's Republican Party. " Challenging policies is one

thing, but calling someone 'brain dead' crosses the line. "

 

Many of the union members and retirees who attended the rally didn't

think Biden's comments were out of line.

 

They said in the past they often crossed party lines to support the

late U.S. Sen. Bill Roth, a conservative Republican who spent more

than three decades in the Senate, and continue to vote for U.S. Rep.

Mike Castle, a moderate Republican. However, they would have a hard

time supporting Bush, they said, because of his administration's policies.

 

" The senator wasn't talking the political talk, he was pretty

straightforward. That's what we wanted and that's what we got,

straight talk, " said Bill Wasik, Local 435's vice president.

" Basically, the senator said that the Bush administration isn't

listening to the working men and women, and that's true. "

 

Local 435 recording secretary Nancy Smith said that while Biden's

speech was " very emotional " she did not think his comments were off base.

 

" He spoke from his heart about what's at stake for all labor and all

working-class people in America, " she said. " He talked about issues

that definitely affect us. These are serious issues for us, and he

talked about what could happen if we don't make a change. "

 

Biden touched on a wide range of issues during a speech in which he

walked among audience members, stopping to shake hands with people

whose names he wove into anecdotes.

 

Wasik and other members of the audience said they are concerned about

the war in Iraq. They worry because it seems the White House has no

clear strategy for getting U.S. troops out of there.

 

" It's a quagmire, " Wasik said. " We support our troops, of course, but

we know now that the war in Iraq didn't turn out to be what they said

it was going to be about. I think that the war should be in Afghanistan.

That's where the terrorists are, not in Iraq. "

 

Biden discussed the war during his speech and later told reporters the

United States and its allies must send large numbers of soldiers to

Iraq to guarantee free elections

 

in 2005, just as they did in Afghanistan this year. The Bush

administration may not have the political will nor the international

credibility to ensure that happens, he said.

 

Biden's attack on the Bush administration's policies focused attention

on White House support for the prescription drug bill and tax policies

that favor U.S. industries that move their operations overseas.

 

If Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is elected president, Biden said to

loud applause, the tax breaks will go to companies that remain in

America instead of those that go overseas.

 

The prescription drug bill, he said, " is a sham " and illegal because

it forbids Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

 

Biden took exception to Bush's recent statements that lower-priced

prescription drugs from Canada - which are made by the same companies

that make and sell them in the United States - may not be safe.

 

" He said that and yet he then told a Canadian company to manufacture

our flu vaccine, " Biden said.

 

In a separate interview, Biden said he won't call for a suspension of

the U.S. military's controversial anthrax vaccination program.

 

Recent stories in The News Journal have called attention to the plight

of soldiers who received anthrax vaccines containing a booster called

squalene. The booster is blamed for adverse reactions in troops who

received the shots at Dover Air Force Base.

 

Biden reiterated a statement he issued last week with Sen. Tom Carper,

D-Del., and Castle in which they said no evidence has yet surfaced

that current batches of the vaccine contain squalene. He believes the

military must continue vaccinating troops against the threat of

anthrax attacks as long as the shots are safe.

 

Contact Mike Billington at 324-2761 or mbillington.

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