Biden speaks at Manassas forum

With 61 days left before the general election, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden turned his attention to Virginia and Prince William County with hopes of grabbing the state’s 13 electoral votes.

The focus was on the economy and the roughly 300-capacity Verizon Auditorium at George Mason University’s Prince William campus was almost filled for Biden’s second town hall meeting of the day.

Earlier on Thursday, Biden spoke in Virginia Beach about national security.

The forums were the Delaware senator’s first appearances after Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican convention.

After being introduced by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Biden commented on Palin’s speech, saying, “I heard a very strong, a very good political speech from the [governor] from Alaska,” Biden said. “I was equally impressed by what I didn’t hear in the speech. I didn’t hear the phrase ‘health insurance’ mentioned once. I didn’t hear one time any reference to education. I didn’t hear a single syllable about how hard it is for middle-class folks to get their kids to college.”

He went on to outline in some detail what Sen. Barack Obama’s plan for the economy would be, speaking mostly about health care, making higher education affordable for more people and eliminating tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.

Biden criticized Sen. John McCain’s health care plan that would make health care premiums taxable income and shift the burden from the employer to the employee.  An Obama-Biden administration would make sure every child is insured and among other things would allow uninsured people to buy into the insurance plan that covers federal employees, he said.

Other points touched on were increasing Pell Grants for students in households earning less than $50,000, creating “green” jobs and cutting taxes for middle class families.

The forum included a five-member panel of local residents who spoke briefly about the obstacles they faced in the weak economy, followed by a question-and-answer period.

Sarah McAbee, 26, of Fairfax County asked: “How do you address the federal deficit and declining value of the dollar?”
Biden’s answer included eliminating tax breaks for the wealthy and ending the war in Iraq.

After the forum, the student and GMU staff member said she’s still undecided on whether she’ll vote for Obama or a third-party candidate. She still has questions on how tax cuts can factor in with a nearly $500 billion budget deficit, she said.

“If you’re taking money away from the government, how are you going to pay off debts you owe to other countries,” she said following the roughly hour-and-a-half forum.

John Harvey and his wife, both Obama supporters, were among the first in line for the town hall meeting.

The 62-year-old Manassas-area man said he wanted to hear how an Obama administration would address the pressing issues on his mind — the economy, health care and the war in Iraq — and not “just ridicule and sarcasm about the other outfit.”

“We’re losing jobs and inflation is rising at the same time,” he said, adding that he liked Obama’s plan to “roll back tax cuts for the wealthy 1 or 2 percent.”

Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062.