here is what Joe recently said about the housing market;
Des Moines, IA (December 21, 2007) – Today, at stops in Iowa, Sen. Joe Biden discussed his plan to help the more than 2 million families caught in the subprime mortgage crisis. Sen. Biden called for immediate action to shore up the housing sector and keep people from losing their homes.
"President Bush's first reaction to the subprime crisis wasn't to help families who might lose their homes, it was to create a $100 billion bailout fund for financial institutions that made bad bets," said Sen. Biden. "Protecting people's investments in their homes should come before insuring executives on Wall Street. Short-term patches and half measures that just help a tiny fraction of people just aren't good enough."
Noting that a strong housing market is fundamental to our economy, Sen. Biden called for a comprehensive plan to keep people from losing their homes by: cracking down on lenders who lure people into loans they cannot afford; modifying existing loans instead of racing to foreclosure; allowing bankruptcy courts to make changes in loans; helping families refinance by expanding access to counseling and affordable federally backed mortgages; and preserving access to credit by stabilizing the mortgage market.
"In a Biden administration, families will come first," said Sen. Biden. "I won't turn my back while people struggle to keep their homes. I would take four steps immediately to restore our economic strength: end the war in Iraq; deal with the crisis in the housing market; get health care costs under control by providing catastrophic coverage and invest in education."
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=113892 And here is what he has said about the jobs;
Every day we see more evidence this economy is not working for middle-class Americans. If we honor work, we have to reward it.”
--Joe Biden
Joe Biden’s Plan to Keep America Working
Protect Worker Rights to Organize: As president, Joe Biden will put a stop to George Bush’s war on labor. Joe Biden is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, and he will always work to ensure workers have the right to join unions without interference from employers.
Defend Workers in Trade Negotiations: Joe Biden believes that US trade negotiations must protect American workers by insisting on basic labor and environmental standards. That’s why he opposed CAFTA and fast track authority for President Bush. He will continue to fight for better labor and environmental standards in trade agreements and will oppose new trade agreements that don’t meet high standards.
Protect Retirement: Joe Biden believes that after a lifetime of work, the last thing people should worry about is their retirement being in jeopardy.
Joe Biden has fought against dangerous plans to privatize Social Security that would slash benefits for future retirees. He also supports making it easier for workers to save for retirement.
Joe Biden has worked to prevent another Enron by authoring new criminal penalties for corporate fraud that robs workers of investments.
Joe Biden is working to protect workers from pension bankruptcy by strengthening the government backstop and insisting that pensions are adequately funded.
Create Green Collar Jobs: As president, Joe Biden will work to create the new jobs that come with a new world. Green-collar jobs will make homes and businesses more energy efficient. Joe Biden has been a leader in the senate, co-sponsoring a worker training program that could help create 3 million new jobs as the U.S. builds a new energy future.
Meet the Demand For New Health Care Workers: Americans are living longer, healthier lives. That’s creating a growing challenge to provide adequate care for all. Estimates indicate we will need to hire more than 100,000 new nurses in the next decade. We will needs thousands of health care workers and aides. Joe Biden believes we can meet that need by investing in more training and attracting people to the profession. He will expand funding for nursing students through increased funding for loan repayment and scholarship programs. Joe Biden also supports retraining laid-off workers as nurses or in other heath care fields.
Joe Biden: Standing with American Workers
Increasing the Minimum Wage: The minimum wage has been stagnant for too long in this country, no one should work a full time job and be too poor to meet their basic needs. Joe Biden supported raising the minimum wage to $7.25 from $5.15 —where it had been stuck for 10 years. As president, Joe Biden will continue to fight hard for better pay for all working Americans, beginning with the minimum wage.
Focusing on Workplace Safety: Joe Biden believes that all employees should be covered by regulations that ensure a safe working environment and their personal safety on the job. He has been a supporter of OSHA regulations since his early days in the Senate and time and time again he has voted to extend OSHA regulations and have vigorously opposed efforts to restrict the application of OSHA coverage.
Defending Overtime: Joe Biden has fought attempts to undermine overtime rights and reduce provide overtime to teachers, nurses, and salespeople.
Protecting Wages for Katrina Workers: Joe Biden fought against the Bush Administration’s attack on workers and helped save Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements for the rebuilding of the gulf coast region destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Supporting Workers Whose Jobs Have Moved Overseas: Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Trade Adjustment Programs. He opposes taking resources from the trade adjustment assistance program and believes that we need to make the assistance more substantive for those who qualify. Joe Biden believes we should ensure that all workers who are displaced by technological and economic change have access to resources and opportunities.
Helping Working Families: Joe Biden understands the difficulties of balancing work and family. He supports the Family and Medical Leave Act and knows how important it was to help the 50 million Americans who have taken advantage of up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for sick family members. We can do more though, and that’s why Joe Biden is co-sponsoring the Healthy Families Act—a bill that would make it mandatory for employers of 15 or more workers to provide seven days paid leave for their own or their families’ health care, providing millions of Americans with the flexibility they need to both take care of their families and remain working.
Caring for Seniors: Joe Biden knows from caring for his own parents how important home care workforces can be in providing stable, experienced care to the growing number of senior citizens who wish to stay in their homes. Joe Biden supports expanding access to home healthcare and hospice services and co-sponsored the Community Choices Act, which would help disabled Americans get Medicaid coverage for at-home care.
And the economy;
Reviving the U.S. economy
JUDY WOODRUFF: The U.S. economy, how would you size up its health? And what would you as president want to do to see it get out of this current subprime mess, which is spreading to the rest of the economy?
SEN. JOE BIDEN: Sure is.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what would you want to see to keep the U.S. economy...
SEN. JOE BIDEN: The state of the economy is precarious right now. Two reasons: We don't know how deep this subprime hole is, because there's no transparency in the hedge fund business. And we don't know how many of these bad subprime, collateral loans that were offered to get good loans to build, you know, to provide good money, we don't know how much is built on a bad foundation.
We need transparency. You need transparency in the hedge fund side of things, and that has to happen in the future. You have to provide for the ability of people who are losing their homes to be able to negotiate for the ability to maintain those homes at the interest rates they're in at now because, in the interest of the company, they not go bankrupt, in the interest of the mortgage-holder.
But more importantly, Judy, the problem we have here is that we owe China a trillion dollars. We're $2 trillion in debt to the world. The value of the dollar is falling. And why are we so much in debt? The war and tax cuts for the wealthy.
I would let the tax cuts expire for the very wealthy. We get the bunch of all these tax cuts. That would put trillion dollars back into the economy that we could use that for other things to begin to prop up the economy.
I would also change our trade policy. Here we are, take a look at China. We have the ability to curtail the importation of those products China is sending to us as tainted toys, tainted dog food. We can do that under the World Trade Organization rules. We don't do it. We don't even enforce fair trade in this administration and even in the last administration a little bit, because we don't want to offend or hurt major companies with interests in those countries. So I would impose fair trade.
And the third thing I would do is, by ending this war, it would free up $120 billion a year. What is happening? We are hemorrhaging blood and treasure here with war and tax cuts, driving ourselves in debt more than we ever have been. And it's having a dramatic impact upon the stability of the dollar and the stability of the markets here.
People tend to forget that Iraq is directly tied to the US economy.
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