Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris met for the first and only 2020 vice presidential debate Wednesday in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah and discussed college affordability, health insurance and the economy for recent college graduates. Credit: Courtesy of TNS via Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
Separated by 12 feet of distance and plexiglass walls, Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris discussed college tuition, COVID-19 responses and economic issues faced by recent college graduates.
Pence and Harris met for the first and only 2020 vice presidential debate Wednesday in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah. Between comparing the coronavirus to the swine flu and discussing the presidential line of succession, the vice presidential candidates briefly discussed college affordability, health insurance and graduating into an economic crisis.
Harris said under a Biden-Harris administration, the federal government will cover tuition for a substantial number of students.
“If you come from a family that makes less than $125,000, you will go to a public university for free,” Harris said.
Pence did not address the topic of tuition in his response.
Pence and Harris also discussed the Affordable Care Act, which Harris said the Trump-Pence administration has taken and will take steps to take coverage away from the 20 million Americans insured since its enactment in 2010, including young people on their parents’ insurance policy.
Under the Affordable Care Act, people can be covered by their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 15.1 percent of people aged 19-25 years were uninsured in 2018, down from nearly 32 percent in 2010.
“If you are under 26 and on your parents insurance, they are coming for you,” Harris said.
Pence called the Affordable Care Act a “disaster” and said after its appeal, those with preexisting conditions would still be covered. He did not discuss whether the Trump-Pence administration would keep the maximum age of children on parents’ insurance at 26.
The candidates also discussed economic issues facing recent graduates. Harris said recent high school and college graduates are facing a desolate job market due to the economic recession caused by COVID-19.
“Think about 20-year-olds. You know, we have a 20-year-old — a 20-something-year-old — who is coming out of high school and college right now you’re wondering, is there going to be a job there for you?” Harris said.
As of June, 13.3 percent of recent college graduates were unemployed, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The group’s unemployment rate in June 2019 was 4.2 percent.
Pence did not discuss job availability for high school and college graduates; instead, he discussed economic gains the average American family of four has seen under his and President Donald Trump’s administration.
Pence said the average American income for a family of four has increased by $4,000 per year. According to the United States Census Bureau, the median household income was $68,703 in 2019, up from $64,324 in 2018.
Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden met Sept. 30 for the first presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. There are two more presidential debates planned for Oct. 15 in Miami and Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.
