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Biden: Pollution More Deadly Than TerroristsSen. Joe Biden answers questions in our presidential mashup.


Updated Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007, at 11:53 PM ET

The following is an unedited transcript and may contain typos or omissions. Click here for more on the presidential mashup.

(Continued from page 1)

Biden: Absolutely, Charlie. Absolutely. We have to view it in three ways. Prevention. Prevention. Not all a saw. You know, an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure is real. We virtually do not have anything that rewards those people who are engaged in their physician's or insurer's companies that emphasize prevention. The second thing we have to do is we have to provide for changing the way we think of it as an employer-based system totally. We have an overwhelming opportunity now to get universal health care, Charlie, because business needs more than labor or business needs it more than the uninsured. They cannot compete internationally. Case in point, build a Buick in my home state in a General Motors plant and build the same Buick in Ontario, Canada. Same UAW. You can sell the one built in Canada for 14 percent less because they have universal health care. American businesses are yearning—yearning for us to come up with a solution that provides health care that is not totally employer-based. We have to think about it really differently, but the delivery of health care we have to think about differently, too. The idea we're not going to be opening up little clinics in shopping centers all across America that is going to generate avoidance of operating—excuse me—of emergency rooms is just not reasonable. Look what they're doing in India, look what they're doing in other parts of the world. There's a cheaper, better, faster, and better way to deliver health care in America beyond dealing merely with the question of access and cost.

Rose: Let me turn to education and begin with a user question. This one from Rochelle Williams, who said if we are founded on the concept of equal opportunity, though not necessarily equal result, and education is a great equalizer, shouldn't a college education be free?

Biden: Absolutely, positively, unequivocally. As president, that's what I would push for. We should—the idea we're talking about 12 years of public education being sufficient in the 21st century is ridiculous and even in terms of us putting us in a competitive situation in the world. I have a thing called a college access program. I would allow every single solitary family making up to $150,000 to be able to have a refundable tax credit of $3,000 per student. Everyone under $50,000 now qualifies for a Pell Grant. I would change them from $4,300 to $6,300 plus the refundable tax credit. It would mean every child in America, every qualified person in America, under the—under an income under $50,000 would have been $9,300 to go to any state university in their state in America for four years. But we have to change our mind-set here, Charlie, and lead. We have to deal with early education. You know, the earlier you start people in earlier education, the better the prospects of them graduating. So you need pre-Head Start and Head Start. You need competent preschool. Starting kids in school at age 3 instead of age 6 increases exponentially their chance of graduating. So there's a lot we have to do, but it's all within our capacity. What I just suggested, the whole Biden plan for starting early and college as well, that whole plan costs less than $18 billion a year. We're spending about $11 billion a month in Iraq.

Rose: Even though No Child Left Behind did not reach all the objectives that perhaps the president and certainly those who supported it, was it worth supporting?

Biden: Had it been funded and had it implemented as it was intended, it would have been worth it. Now it needs a major overhaul, Charlie. The idea of standards makes sense. It makes sense. But the problem here is that the way in which standards are measured. My wife is an educator for the last 30 years. She can tell—she's told me chapter and verse like other teachers can, that you end up teaching to the test. Number one. Number two, there is no—in most states you do not consider progress. For example, when she was teaching in high school, she taught three advanced courses and two remedial courses. If she brought the kids from the remedial courses that were juniors from an eighth-grade level to a 10th-grade reading level, it was considered a failure. But an advanced class, she didn't even have to show up for class. And they passed the test. You have to measure progress against a standard. And we have—that's what has to be changed in No Child Left Behind. But the bottom line, Charlie, everybody knows the answer. Start earlier, smaller classes, better teachers, and access to college. I mean, we don't need No Child Left Behind to understand exactly what's needed to radically change which was in our power the education system in America, which is the single most significant thing we can do for the betterment of this country.

Rose: All right, for my last question, I go to Los Angeles for Bill Maher for his question for you.

Biden: OK.

Rose: Sen. Biden, forgetting about the upcoming Iowa caucus for just a moment, which would you honestly say is more likely to contribute to the death of your average American: a terrorist strike or high-fructose corn syrup and air that has too much coal in it?

Biden: Air that has too much coal in it. Corn syrup next, and then a terrorist attack. But that does not in any way diminish the fact that a terrorist attack is real. It's not an existential threat to bring down the country, but does have the capacity still it can kill thousands of people. But hundreds of thousands of people die and their lives are shortened because of coal plants, coal-fired plants, and because of corn syrup.

Rose: Sen. Biden, thank you for joining us for this conversation mashup online. And we look forward to seeing you again here at the table.

Biden: Thanks an awful lot, Charlie.

Rose: We'll be back. Stay with us.

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Remarks from the Fray:

The comments of Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. during the September 12 Great Presidential Mashup suggesting that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a unique contributor to health problems is misleading.

HFCS, like table sugar and honey, is composed of fructose and glucose, which are found in many other naturally-occurring foods. Since 1983, the Food and Drug Administration has listed HFCS as "Generally Recognized as Safe" (known as GRAS status) for use in food.

Several press reports have pointed to HFCS as a 'unique' cause of obesity. This assertion lacks scientific merit. In fact, Dr. Walter Willett, Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Department Chairman, told The New York Times, "There's no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity."

There have also been several misguided reports claiming that the body processes HFCS differently than other sugars. New research shows that HFCS is metabolized similar to sugar. Kathleen J Melanson, et al. at Rhode Island University recently reviewed the effects of HFCS and sucrose on circulating levels of glucose, leptin, insulin and ghrelin in a study group of lean women. The study found "no differences in the metabolic effects" of HFCS and sucrose (Nutrition 23(2):103-12).

HFCS can be enjoyed as part of a healthy, balanced diet. According to the American Dietetic Association, "Consumers can safely enjoy a range of nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners when consumed in a diet that is guided by current federal nutrition recommendations ... as well as individual health goals."

Audrae Erickson

President

Corn Refiners Association

--aerickson

(To reply, click here.)

(9/14)

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