Debt Issue Suffers Setback on Campaign Trail With Biden as VP Choice
The Democratic Convention is slated to begin this week in Denver and I’m already disappointed about Democratic Presidential Nominee Senator Barack Obama’s choice for his Vice Presidential Candidate - Senator Joseph (Joe) Biden from Delaware.
Delaware is the state of incorporation for most large corporations in the United States because of the perception (whether real or not is a completely separate question) that it has business friendly laws and a good climate for corporate governance. And after many years of representing the interests of Delaware and its constituents, Biden can’t claim to be as free from corporate influence and Washington lobbyists as I’m sure Obama would like. One of Biden’s largest political contributors was the world’s largest independent credit card issuer, MBNA, until it merged with Bank of America in 2005.
Among Senator Biden’s most noticeable departures from the agenda of Democrats during his time in Congress was his vigorous support of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. While it has been clear from media coverage that Biden was chosen for his foreign policy credentials (he’s the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) and his political experience, one has to wonder why Senator Obama was willing to compromise measures to protect consumers in these troubled times by tying himself to a Vice Presidential Candidate with credit card company ties.
Prior to selection of Biden, Obama had put credit card reform and bankruptcy reform on his platform. He also went so far as to blast McCain for his support of the 2005 bankruptcy legislation. His choice of Biden suggests that credit cards and bankruptcy aren’t nearly as high on Sen. Obama’s agenda for President as he might like the American public to believe. Biden, after all, supported the same bankruptcy legislation that he criticized Senator McCain for supporting, and has financed his election campaigns with the money paid from consumers to credit card companies.
It is, of course, possible that Biden was forced to yield to the wishes of his corporate constituents on the bankruptcy legislation in order to represent his state and might have voted different had he not had to represent their interests. But given Biden’s previous presidential campaigns and the possibility of using the office of the Vice President as a stepping stone to the Oval Office in 2016, it seems unlikely that he would alienate this well financed constituency by taking up the public’s cause in the battle over credit card reform in Congress and the Federal Reserve.
This is the dilemma that Obama has introduced to the Americans who commented on (presumably in favor of) the Federal Reserve’s credit card reforms. Of course, the alternative is to vote for the Republican Presidential Nominee, John McCain, who owes vast sums to credit card companies (I recently saw a story that he and his wife owe American Express over $1 million), doesn’t use the internet, and can’t tell you how many houses he owns without asking a staffer.
