There's One Glaring Problem with Biden's Excuse for Not Explaining His Healthcare Plan
A big part of campaigning for the presidency is getting out among the American people, putting forward policy prescriptions to fix the ills of the nation and offering at least a little bit of detail about those particular policies, such as how they would be implemented to achieve the desired result.
While many of the 2020 Democratic candidates have done exactly that with regard to explaining their various plans to overhaul and improve the nation’s health care system, former Vice President Joe Biden simply doesn’t have the time or inclination to do so, as he recently noted.
The Washington Examiner reported that Biden, as part of his campaigning in important early primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina, has been touting his idea to provide Americans with a “public option” when it comes to health care insurance.
Essentially, a public option for health care would be akin to a government-run program like Medicare that Americans of all ages could buy into instead of obtaining insurance on the private market.
Except that Biden, when not referring to health care as some sort of fundamental “human right,” has declined to offer any specifics on the idea, whether it be legislation introduced in Congress or a simple fact sheet providing details of the plan.
Indeed, Biden even told a crowd in Iowa City recently that he didn’t have time to explain the proposal, nor did he want to bore his gathered supporters. Biden said of his “public option” health care plan, “I don’t have time; I don’t want to keep you standing any longer.”
That, however, comes across as a lame excuse to avoid explaining the details of his plan, because if there is one thing that Biden has an abundance of, it is time to talk to the “folks” who are going to vote.
Other than running for president, what else does Biden have going on? He isn’t a member of Congress like the majority of the other Democratic candidates, so he doesn’t have to rush off to cast an important vote or spend time in committee hearings.
Nor is Biden saddled with the responsibilities of being the vice president or running the country from the White House. Similarly, Biden is not governing a state or serving as mayor of a city, so it isn’t like he has those responsibilities to tend to either.
In fact, of the nearly two-dozen candidates running for the Democratic Party’s nomination, Biden is probably the one candidate who has the most available time on hand to provide detailed explanations of his plans and policies.
Making Biden’s excuse come across as more of a lame dodge than anything is the fact that other candidates who have other responsibilities and are often crunched for time have nevertheless been relatively forthcoming in offering up specifics for their respective plans.
Take Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Sen. Kamala Harris, both of whom have put forward proposals for a “Medicare for All” style of government-run, single-payer health care.
Despite those senators having to balance committee hearings and votes and other duties with their campaign events, both have taken the time to at least partially explain some ins and outs of their plans — which, by the way, would essentially outlaw private health insurance and subjugate the entirety of the nation’s health care system to federal government control.
One would think that Biden, who ostensibly has nothing else to do but run for president, could carve out time to explain his plan to bolster the failing Affordable Care Act.
As an aside, wasn’t Biden one of the ones who promised the American people that Obamacare would address all of our nation’s health care woes? Why does it need fixing now?
With no real effort to explain his ideas on health care to the American people, we have little choice but to speculate as to why he has seemingly refused to do so — perhaps details have yet to be worked out, or he’s incapable of explaining it. Biden could clear all of that up quickly, however, if he would just pencil in a small block of time in his busy schedule.
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