Reality Check :: Joe Biden at the DNC

There certainly has been a lot to react to in the past several days of the Democratic National Convention. Certainly political conventions and a penchant for exageration go hand-in-hand, this convention has been no exception.

Let's focus first on the pointed remarks of Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joseph Biden. In the following analysis, I'll make an attempt to peel away the hype and provide you with the facts to "back-up" his arguments. You can draw your own conclusions from there.

Biden: "When he [Barack Obama] came to Washington, John [McCain] and I watched with amazement how he hit the ground running, leading the fight to pass the most sweeping ethics reform in a generation."

The Obama campaign uses two facts as foundation for this claim.
First, Senator Obama joined with John McCain and other Republican leaders in calling for stronger rules disclosing earmarks (better known as “pork”) in spending bills.

Second, he joined with fellow Democrat Russ Feingold (D-WI) in supporting an amendment requiring senators to fully reimburse their corporate patrons for the cost of flying in their private jets. The amendment as authored by Obama and Feingold never made it into the final version of the bill; rather, it was combined with a number of other proposals and rolled into the final package.

Biden: "He reached across party lines to pass a law that helped keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists."

Obama joined Dick Luger (R-IN), the Senior Senator from Indiana in proposing a measure that would give the president more resources to provide to countries attempting to lock-down their nuclear weapons arsenal. The bill never came to vote; it was joined with a larger bill and signed, without opposition, into law in January 2007.

Biden: "...he moved Congress and the president to give our wonderful wounded warriors the care and dignity they deserve."

In 2003, the wife of Congressman Bill Young (R-FL) brought to the nation’s attention the fact that soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center were being required to reimburse the government $8.10 per day for their meals. In response, Congressman Young paid the $210 bill of the soldier who brought this to their attention, then introduced a bill that would permanently end the practice. The bill passed later that year.

In January, 2005 Salon.com published an article revealing the fact that the Congressman Young’s bill only applied to inpatient care, and that the Medical Center was charging those soldiers participating in outpatient care for their meals. Senator Obama was informed of this fact four months after joining the Senate. In remedy, he introduced an amendment to a defense spending bill that expanded the definition of “hospitalized” patients at government medical centers to include those undergoing physical therapy and recuperation.

Biden: "John thinks that, during the Bush years, quote, "We've made great economic progress." I think it's been abysmal."

This is a subjective one, and quite honestly, for most Americans, the economy is as good or as bad as your own finances or perception. I'll try to provide a few numbers to help you decide.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
Late January, 2001 = 10,587
Late August, 2008 = 11,628

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product (based on constant prices)
as reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
1993 - $28,955.425
2001 - $34,673.528 (+19.7% increase during the Clinton Administration)
2007 - $38,306.079 (+10.5% increase during the Bush Administration)

In charting these increases, the Bush Administration also cut taxes. The results of those tax cuts seem to have had a positive effect on the economy. According to the Tax Foundation (http://www.taxfoundation.org/) a non-partisan Washington think-tank devoted to the study of sound tax policy:


The static net loss in revenue the nation should have seen as a result of the Bush tax cuts should have been $29.7 billion. In actuality, the real loss was about $18.5 billion.
"That means an estimated 25-to-40 percent of the static revenue loss was offset by the tax-induced increase in the tax base," says Tax Foundation Vice President for Economic Policy Robert Carroll, Ph.D.
Listing specific taxpayer responses that would account for the surge in taxable income, Carroll cites taxpayers working harder and longer hours, taking riskier and higher-paying jobs, choosing entrepreneurship over wage-earning, shifting compensation from nontaxable fringe benefits to taxable wages, or relying less heavily on tax deductible consumption such as debt-financed home ownership.


Biden: "Should you trust the judgment of John McCain, when he said only three years ago, "Afghanistan, we don't read about it anymore in papers because it succeeded"? Or should you believe Barack Obama who said a year ago, "We need to send two more combat battalions to Afghanistan"? The fact of the matter is, al Qaeda and the Taliban, the people who actually attacked us on 9/11, they've regrouped in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and they are plotting new attacks. And the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has echoed Barack's call for more troops."

I think that the non-partisan service provided by the Saint Petersburg Times, PolitiFact (www.politifact.com) responded very well to this one:


The McCain comment stems from an Oct. 31, 2005, appearance on the Charlie Rose talk show on PBS. He was asked about winning in Iraq. After discussing issues confronting that country, McCain concluded: “Afghanistan, we don’t read about anymore, because it’s succeeded. And by the way, there’s several reasons, including NATO participation and other reasons, why Afghanistan is doing as well as it is.”
A couple of weeks later, on Nov. 10, 2005, McCain told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, “One of the reasons why we don’t see a lot about Afghanistan is because many of the successes — although we still have a long way to go through — that we have.” He added he would “love to see more troops there.”
This year, McCain said he would support adding more U.S. and Afghan soldiers, strengthening the government there. He promised it would “turn around the war in Afghanistan,” where the Taliban have expanded attacks recently and American troops in July rose to 36,000, their highest level.


As for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs "echoing" Obama. The Washington Post reported on July 3, 2008 that the Navy Admiral Michael Mullen had been calling for more troops in Afghanistan "for months".

Obama echoed the Chairman's call for more troops on July 14, 2008.

It should also be noted, that the spike in violence in Afghanistan stemmed largely from a 400+ person prison-break. Enemy combatants were freed and immediately rejoined the battle. Very rarely in the history of warfare were enemy combatants ever imprisoned along the front-lines. The Bush Administration has tried to use Guantanamo Bay as their holding area in order to keep combatants from rejoining the battle in such a case as this.

Biden: "Now, after six long years, the administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home. John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was right."

I think the real question to pose here is, "Why, after six years, has the administration decided to make such an abrupt about-face?"

In January, 2007, Barack Obama and John McCain commented on the president's plan for a "surge" of troops in Iraq on Bob Scheiffer's Face the Nation. You can see the full report here.

McCain said the following: "As most people know, we have gone in to clear and left, and the insurgents have returned. This is a chance under the new leadership of General Petraeus and Admiral Fallon to have a chance to succeed. Do I believe it can succeed? Yes, I do."

Face the Nation reported that: "According to some Democrats, this plan is the McCain Doctrine. McCain is one of the few politicians who is speaking for a troop increase when most others are calling for a drawdown."

In the same report, Obama stated: "I personally think that, if there are ways that we can constrain and condition what the president is doing so that, four to six months from now, we are beginning a phased withdrawal while making sure that the troops on the ground have the equipment that they need to succeed, then that is going to be the area that I'm most interested in supporting."

Obama did not succeed in his doctrine of "constrain and condition." The surge took place and, by all accounts, succeeded, allowing for the United States and Iraq to discuss the terms for U.S. withdrawl. ABCNews highlighted this fact during Obama's July visit to Iraq and asked his opinion on the surge. He stated, in no unclear terms, that given a second opportunity to do so, he would not have supported the surge.