Presidential Candidates Hold Second Debate
Economy, healthcare are primary concerns.
Kellen Riell
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Presidential debate
The two candidates also stated their attitudes toward health insurance.
"If you don't have health insurance, you're going to be able to buy the same kind of insurance that Sen. McCain and I enjoy as federal employees. Because there's a huge pool, we can drop the costs. And nobody will be excluded for pre-existing conditions, which is a huge problem," Obama said.
In contrast, McCain offered a $5,000 tax credit to every American, to be used toward whatever policy -- private or public -- that American should choose. "The point is that we have got to give people choice in America and not mandate things on them and give them the ability," McCain said.
"Quick discussion," suggested the moderator, Tom Brokaw. "Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?"
"I think it's a responsibility, in this respect, in that we should have available and affordable health care to every American citizen, to every family member," said McCain.
"I think it should be a right for every American," Obama said. "In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can't pay their medical bills -- for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong about that."
Dave Barnes, a 23-year-old college graduate and Albany resident, felt strongly about the candidates' performance in the debates.
Obama, Barnes said, came out the winner: "He was such a quick thinker. He knows what he wants, he's got it clear in his head. Whereas McCain was just a bumbling dufus."
Barnes is a registered independent, but the democratic presidential candidate has his full support. He likes Obama's healthcare plan and thinks that the U.S. should leave Iraq. He also approves of the senator's vote against the invasion of Iraq.
If McCain becomes president, Barnes said, "we might go to Iran, and maybe even with Russia."
"If you don't have health insurance, you're going to be able to buy the same kind of insurance that Sen. McCain and I enjoy as federal employees. Because there's a huge pool, we can drop the costs. And nobody will be excluded for pre-existing conditions, which is a huge problem," Obama said.
In contrast, McCain offered a $5,000 tax credit to every American, to be used toward whatever policy -- private or public -- that American should choose. "The point is that we have got to give people choice in America and not mandate things on them and give them the ability," McCain said.
"Quick discussion," suggested the moderator, Tom Brokaw. "Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?"
"I think it's a responsibility, in this respect, in that we should have available and affordable health care to every American citizen, to every family member," said McCain.
"I think it should be a right for every American," Obama said. "In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can't pay their medical bills -- for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong about that."
Dave Barnes, a 23-year-old college graduate and Albany resident, felt strongly about the candidates' performance in the debates.
Obama, Barnes said, came out the winner: "He was such a quick thinker. He knows what he wants, he's got it clear in his head. Whereas McCain was just a bumbling dufus."
Barnes is a registered independent, but the democratic presidential candidate has his full support. He likes Obama's healthcare plan and thinks that the U.S. should leave Iraq. He also approves of the senator's vote against the invasion of Iraq.
If McCain becomes president, Barnes said, "we might go to Iran, and maybe even with Russia."
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