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- Candidate Status:
- Out
- Current Job:
- Senator from Delaware
- Birth Date:
- November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania
- Family:
- Wife Jill Tracy Jacobs; 1st wife Neila Hunter (1966-1972, deceased); three children
- Religion:
- Catholic
- Education:
- University of Delaware, B.A., 1965
Syracuse University, J.D., 1968
- Career:
- Sen. Biden is a six-term senator from Delaware and head of the Foreign Relations Committee. First elected in 1972 at the age of 29, Biden, a former attorney, says the Democratic Party has become too timid.
- Other facts:
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- Biden was widely criticized after a January 2007 article in the "New York Observer" quoted him as describing fellow Democrat Barack Obama as an "African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.
- Abortion:
- Biden voted in favor of the partial-birth abortion ban signed into law in 2003. He later called the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ban "troubling" as a possible cause to "dismantle basic legal precedent."
- Energy/Environment:
- Biden supports greater domestic fuel efficiency, as well as investment into renewable fuel technology like ethanol and bio-diesel. He has called on the current administration to join a new international climate treaty. Biden also supports a cap-and-trade system that would set an emissions ceiling for utilities, but would allow the trading of leftover emission allowances among individual companies.
- Immigration:
- Biden voted for the 2006 comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate, which provided for a guest worker program as well as a legal path toward citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. He also voted in favor of the bill to build a 700-mile border fence, although he has said that was largely based on an anti-drug platform. Biden has said that Mexican corruption is largely to blame for the economic disparities leading to the flow of illegal immigrants. He says business that hire illegal immigrants should be held accountable for breaking the law.
- Iraq:
- Biden has proposed splitting Iraq into three main federated states with each being governed by one of the three major ethnic groups in Iraq -- Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. He also loudly opposed the Bush administration's troop surge plans and criticized the president for vetoing legislation, which included a phased withdrawal. Biden has pushed to repeal the 2002 Iraq war authorization, which he originally supported.
- Taxes:
- Biden has proposed setting aside one year of the Bush administration tax cut to invest in a Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund. He also supported repealing $2.6 billion in tax cuts for the oil and gas industries. Biden would increase the tax deduction for college tuition payments, and would work to eliminate the marriage penalty tax and the estate tax.
