POLITICS
Biden: U.S. Must 'Spend' to Avoid Bankruptcy
2009-07-17 04:09am
Vice President Joe Biden told a group Thursday that the only way the nation can avoid going bankrupt is for the government to spend more money.
"And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable," Biden to a group of American Association of Retired Persons meeting in Washington.
"It's totally unacceptable. And it's completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can't do it financially," he said.
"Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?' The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you."
The AARP supports the Obama administration's plan for health care reform, though the Congressional Budget Office and Republicans say the level of spending required to pull it off is "unsustainable" to the nation's budget.
Also, Republicans have said the 1,000-plus page bill contains punitive measures and provisions that would actually limit health insurance choices and drive most people onto a government-run health insurance system. Some fiscally conservative Democrats have agreed with the GOP and CBO.
The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress deny those accusations, saying the plan will be the first real overhaul of the nation's health care system in a generation.
"They'll be a deal in there so there's competition, so what you'll have in there is you'll have the ability to go in there and say, 'Now look, this is the policy I want. This is the one,'" Biden told the AARP members.
(c) 2009 Newsroom.