Last week, during the presidential race, Bernie Sanders had quit on April 8th, leaving behind the tense competition between him and Joe Biden. The next day, Joe Biden proposed his support for expanding Medicare and providing more student relief for college student tuition. This is remarkable as Joe Biden had wanted to veto Medicare, but when Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, he switched his course of action. Even though Sanders quitting was as a peace offering, it is still suspicious how Biden wanted to pursue and extend upon Sanders plan, such as extending Medicare to a lower eligibility age from 65 to 60, rather than to all citizens like Sanders had proposed. This raises the question: “Why is Joe Biden switching his tactics? Does this have to deal with Bernie Sanders quitting the presidential race?”
In an article by the Los Ángeles Time, “Senator Sanders and his supporters can take pride in their work in laying the groundwork for these ideas, and I’m proud to adopt them as part of my campaign at this critical moment in responding to the coronavirus crisis,” Biden said in a Medium post. From this statement, Biden seems to be showing how he supported Sanders ideas, and plans on doing his best to expand upon them more efficiently and costly, as Sanders original plan was too expensive. However, Biden’s plan seems inadequate and contradicts his previous statement back in March. In a feature on CNBC news, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked Biden would he veto Medicare, if it were to pass the House of Representatives. “I would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of health care being available now,” Biden replied. “If they got that through in by some miracle or there’s an epiphany that occurred and some miracle occurred that said, ‘OK, it’s passed,’ then you got to look at the cost.” Therefore, although Biden stated that he would veto Medicare if it didn’t benefit the wellness of the American people, a month from then, he is now stating that he would not, and would instead focus on trying to provide Medicare at a reasonable age. Biden seems discreditable, as he doesn’t seem to have a concrete foundation for what he intends to do, consisting of differing statements from what he stated in the past.
Here are some comments from people’s thoughts are on this situation. “I think Sanders dropping out was much more than a peace offering. Clearly, they are not telling us everything about what’s going on, and I believe Sanders dropping out has a much deeper connotation than meets the eye. We really just don’t know since it was just a ‘peace offering,’”my friend Anestia stated. Another interviewee, my friend Ayomide, agreed with Anestia’s statement. “I always knew politics was sketchy, but this situation goes beyond that. I hope Biden has good intentions but he makes himself unclear.” I, myself, agree because knowing Sanders was gaining momentum in the race with more following but then abruptly decided to accept the peace offering is not the wisest decision I would expect from him. It just leaves many questions from what is truly occurring.
In the end, Biden pursuing Sanders plan presents himself as a hypocrite to some voters, as he isn’t following up with what he originally presented. It is unclear where he stands as he has been vague about the whole circumstance. This makes it a unique situation, because now all we want to know is: “What happens if Biden wins the presidential race? Will he go through his plan, or will he change it again like previously?”