In Chesterfield County, Biden says Romney would hammer middle class
Vice President Joe Biden in Chesterfield County today. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Vice President Joe Biden assumed the role of attack dog at a campaign stop in Virginia this morning, accusing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of pursuing an economic agenda that would hammer the middle class in order to protect tax breaks for the wealthy.
“Instead of attacking folks who work for a living and pay their way, Romney should be respecting their hard work,” Biden said during a rally at the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds south of Richmond. “That’s the job of a president — to lift people up, not to tear them down.”
Biden took at aim at Romney for the Republican’s secretly recorded remarks about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay income taxes. Romney characterized them as self-perceived “victims” who are dependent on government and certain to vote for President Barack Obama. The video has become fodder for two Obama campaign ads airing in Virginia and other swing states.
“It’s pretty clear that Governor Romney sees it a totally different way,” Biden told the crowd in an exhibition barn on the fairgrounds. “When he says, ‘It’s not my job to worry about these people,’ well whose job is it? Ladies and gentlemen, we are our brother’s keeper. We are one nation under God. We are all in this together. And if the 47 percent doesn’t make it, the country doesn’t make it.”
Biden’s visit to heavily Republican Chesterfield County came six weeks before the election and was the latest effort by the two major-party tickets to put a stake in the key battleground of Virginia. Obama will campaign in Virginia Beach on Thursday and Romney will stump in Springfield. Romney and his running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, have made multiple visits to the state, as have Obama and Biden.
This was Biden’s first trip to Virginia since last month, when he made headlines with a controversial comment during a stump speech in Danville. Biden was mocking Romney for wanting to “unchain Wall Street” and told a racially diverse audience: “They’re going to put y’all back in chains.” Republicans and former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat and the nation’s first elected black governor, condemned Biden’s comments.
Today, an animated Biden asserted that Republican ticket would slash funding for education and Medicaid and turn Medicare into a voucher system in order to pay for “massive tax cuts for the wealthy.”
“They have rejected every effort to reduce the national debt if that effort required even one dollar, one dime in additional revenue from people making more than $1 million,” Biden said.
Romney’s Virginia campaign spokesman Curt Cashour said Biden “is recycling false and debunked attacks because he can’t tell the people of Virginia about the Obama-Biden record of fewer jobs, more debt, and lower incomes. “
“The reckless policies coming out of the Obama-Biden White House are jeopardizing economic growth, blocking job creation and putting our national security at risk,” Cashour said. “Middle-class families can’t afford four more years like the last four years.”
Cashour said Romney will “reverse President Obama’s job-killing defense cuts, stop the war on coal and end the president’s ban on offshore drilling in Virginia, creating 340,000 Virginia jobs and a better future for all Americans.”
Biden said Romney and Ryan are pushing a divisive and inflexible brand of politics and would recycle policies that led to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
“These guys think compromise is somehow a dirty word,” the vice president said. “Ladies and gentleman, they’re insistent, and Romney’s insistent, in putting back in place the exact same polices that produced the problem in the first place.”
– Michael Sluss
September 25, 2012 - 4:06 PM
Seems approprate that his remarks were made in a barn, most everything he has to say belongs there.
To quote Frances Fox Piven: ““Obama has done some good things as president.
Most of us don’t notice those things because he has done them under the radar.
They don’t get public attention. He’s used executive orders for example, to fund the enforcement of workplace safety inspections by the Labor Department, or to fund environmental protection enforcement.
His stimulus bill… you know, and the sort of cloud of emergency. The stimulus bill was in fact redistributive.
It took, for example, the TANF program which was the program that sort of symbolized the elimination of welfare in the United States, and it gave 5 billion dollars to TANF on condition that the states spend money on TANF; let people get welfare, and of course it put money in food stamps and unemployment insurance as well.
He has made appointments. Usually below the radar screen to the Federal bureaucracy, that the Bush Administration decimated.”
Yea, Joe Biden, if we aren’t our brothers keeper we sure will be soon…
If you, or Frances, want to know what keeps the “poor in bondage”, you need only look at the way our Justice, Tax, Education and Political structures all have been engineered to protect wealth, “class” and privilege above all else. The TP/GOP did not just start buying politicians and the legislation they wanted when Romney threw his patrician self in the ring.
If there is no “redistribution” by people like the Dems who KNOW how rigged the game is, there is no distribution at all. Water your plants with a “trickle” and see how long they last. The cruel truth is that the system redistributes money to the wealthy as well as the poor. Only none of them want to talk about that “Free Lunch” “and how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense (and stick you with the bill)”
“to fund the enforcement of workplace safety inspections by the Labor Department, or to fund environmental protection enforcement. ”
OMG…funding existing obligations! Where will the madness end!
Obama has hammered the middle class. Inflation is the unseen tax!! Shame on you Biden.
If his redistributive policies are so popular why did his mentor, Frances Fox Piven, say he did them under the radar.
Personally, I believe in the American dream and if we give Washington less and keep it in state and local hands where there is more oversight we would give our children the educations they deserve and protect the GOOD teachers – instead this president is focused on protecting his union base to further his ‘fundamental transformation of America’.
Let’s talk about buying votes.
Yes, he’s been great for the middle class, Jason. That’s why the median income of the middle class has FALLEN 6% under his leadership, or $4k per year.
Add to that:
$6T debt in just four short years – money spent paying back his donors with risky green energy picks and redistribution wealth.
Record number of people on food stamps 45M
1:6 in poverty
Housing values (biggest asset for middle class) down or worse, under water
Ask the 23M unemployed and underemployed how much better off they are. There are fewer Americans working than just four short years ago.
I agree, Kathie…let’s talk about “buying votes”. I well remember W’s “rebate” checks. I guess he calculated $400/vote was a good deal.
The real estate crash and subprime crisis began in 2006 and peaked in 2008. Who was president then?
“Personally, I believe in the American dream and if we give Washington less and keep it in state and local hands where there is more oversight we would give our children the educations they deserve and protect the GOOD teachers – instead this president is focused on protecting his union base to further his ‘fundamental transformation of America’.”
LOL. I give it up to you…I’ve never seen so many unrelated talking points and sound bites in one paragraph. American dream! Starve Washington! Teachers Unions!
You forgot to tell us to ask the dead people if they were better off too! How crass to leave out such an important demographic.
You want Obama to be responsible for the detritus of Bush’s 8 long hard years and for not cleaning up the GOP lead economic crash soon enough. We get it.
What you do not seem to understand is that people are not falling for that line. Or the ridiculous idea that any of it can be fixed by doubling down on the Bush economic model that caused it. We have been losing jobs, income and security for over a decade, hemorrhaging them by the time Bush was done. That is NOT Obama’s fault and since you right wingers scream that “the government cannot create jobs”, get off that kick.
The economy has turned around and is improving and you cannot stop it or deny it, not honestly and truthfully anyway.
Even after winning in “Citizens United” and having Wall Street and casino owners trying to buy an election, you are still whining about “this president is focused on protecting his union base”. What total and complete hooey! That is so not credible as to be pitiful. That workers in this nation, union or not are some how a “bad” base and Wall Street CEO’s and casino owners are a “good” base is truly laughable. And the idiotic idea that Obama’s efforts at a “fundamental transformation of America” is somehow worse than the continuing abyss between the rich and poor, erosion of workers and their rights and benefits, with the complete inequality supported by the TP/GOP is just absolutely incredible!
8 – So GWB “bought votes” by giving us back our own money? Oh, I forget – you liberals think the money belongs to the government. Not to those who earned it.
“The economy has turned around and is improving and you cannot stop it or deny it, not honestly and truthfully anyway.”
I’ll remember this next time I’m in the grocery store, or at the gas pump. And how I have to stretch my dollars more than ever before thanks to this remarkable “turned around and improving” economy.
#11 The point is that GWB sent those “rebate” checks at a time and in a way that it was OBVIOUS it was nothing more than a vote-buying ploy. He didn’t give a crap about returning money to Joe Plumber.
You’re one of those freeloaders who expects to live here for free, TheOtherRick? Freedom isn’t free. For shame.
“Oh, I forget – you liberals think the money belongs to the government. Not to those who earned it.”
The Other Rick could NOT have said that any more clearer nor any more accurately.
Oh I forgot, you conservatives think wasting the money to print and deliver checks to taxpayers instead of just allowing it as an added deduction was a brilliant move to “return some of their money” regardless of the cost or efficacy. Got it. That “regardless” part seems to be your strong suit.
14 – I don’t expect to live here for free. Shame on you for making that assumption.
With that being said, I also don’t like seeing my hard earned money going to support those who do – you know, the freeloaders who WILLINGLY choose not to work and live on the government dole…and who overwhelmingly vote Democrat to keep that money coming in.
The ones who earn the money deserve a break from the government once in a while, too. And the Bush rebate checks helped the average tax-paying citizen far more than Obama’s stimulus, which mainly helped unions and other Dem cronies.
16 – As a matter of fact, getting that nice lump sum at the end of the summer (2003, if I recall correctly)…allowed my family to take a well-deserved and much needed vacation that we otherwise would not have been able to afford that year.
It certainly meant a lot more than Obama’s “payroll tax holiday” or whatever it’s called…that is only kicking the Social Security can down the road.
14 – and by the way, I have worked and paid my fair share of taxes my entire adult life. I have never depended on government assistance or welfare.
As such, I deeply resent your “freeloader” accusation.
Seriously The Other Rick? I suspect an awful lot of disabled, retired, veterans and working poor people “deeply resent” you calling them “freeloaders” too. But of course that is just a guess, you should ask them. You see them daily.
TOR, LOLOL. So…you resent being called a “freeloader”, but you resent paying taxes too. And you like getting checks from the government! Yet somehow you’re scornful of other people who get checks from the government.
Resent away, pal. If it looks, walks, and talks like a freeloader, that’s what it is.
Speaking of the poor, how does obama manage to survive when others suffer?
It’s a good day, to be his dog! Your tax dollars are being spent well.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/26/taxpayers-spent-1-4-billion-on-obama-family-last-year-perks-questioned-in-new-book/
A person making $60K a year with two dependants has less disposible income than a non-worker receiving all of the handouts today.
It’s unsustainable – but isn’t that the agenda?
20 – Sandi, please read what I wrote in #17 and refrain from putting words in my mouth or twisting their meaning. I know that’s difficult for you, being a lib and all…but please try.
I said the ones who “WILLINGLY CHOOSE NOT TO WORK”. Not disabled, retired, veterans and working poor. There’s a difference.
What a bunch of crap, bohica. So some guy wrote a book and talked about it to “The Daily Call” or whatever? My favorite – Related Link! 5 Shocking Truths About Michelle Obama!
Yawn.
And Kathie…by all means cite a link for that little statistic.
Obama gives out free phones? Dang, I didn’t know that, but Ohio does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tpAOwJvTOio
#22 Gee, funny how that story mixes in stories from other Dem presidents (but not Repub ones — how many trips did Bush take to Texas?) in a way to try to make Obama look worse, has quite a few weasel words like “reported to,” fails to note that every president since I can’t remember when has used office perks to campaign. I’m not saying none of it is true, but parts are pretty darned shaky.
21 – I like getting some of my money back, sure. And no, I don’t completely “resent paying taxes”. Where did I say that? Oh yeah…I DIDN’T.
But that doesn’t stop you from making the accusation, did it? Just like you didn’t have any problem calling a productive, tax-paying citizen such as myself a “freeloader”.
Geez, you and Sandi both love to twist things around, don’t you? Must be the liberal in you. And it’s that twisted sense of logic that makes these arguments pointless.
#23 Source, Kathie?
We’ll wait.
22 – wow…they’re certainly livin’ large, aren’t they? Yet we’re the “freeloaders”…give me a freakin’ break…
Do you know how many people in this nation “WILLINGLY CHOOSE NOT TO WORK” and are “rewarded” for it? You seem to be conflating not paying taxes with not being “willing” to work so I wanted to be sure you knew who was in that number. With the decade of decline and the massive jobs hemorrhages ’07-’09, we are still recovering from, do you really believe any appreciable number of people remain “willfully” unemployed? I am not putting words in your mouth but the words you are choosing seem really ignorant of the facts. Do you have any?
Do you assume that the 23 million number that is bandied about is all “willful” unemployment? That is less than 15% of the 156 million work force. So is that who you are speaking of that is “willfully” unemployed?
I don’t like seeing my hard earned money going to support corporate profits and foreigners, nuclear weapons and politicians salaries, but as an intelligent person I know that is part of the national responsibility.
I find your attitude, especially in this economic reality to be childish, simplistic, selfish and foolish. Would you please explain why it is not?
Do you really believe you don’t “twist” any words? Do you want to play that game? Do you need them quoted back to you?
Your right wing sources and their memes only speak to your lack of credibility Kathie. Do keep it up.
I don’t get the jealousy towards the Obamas. Sad. You want to live like a President of the United States? Get elected.
The Obamas have 4 Ivy League degrees between them. It’s unlikely they ever would have been in squalor.
Kathie, I know you THINK your post #23 is an indictment on the “takers” and government aid, but IF that is true (and given your sources, that remains a big IF), does it not more truthfully speak to how seriously underpaid someone who is surviving with two dependents on 60K actually is?
Define “livin’ large”, and “give me a freakin’ break…”!
I found that handy little calculation and unless you and Kathie WANT to go live in the housing projects and take public transportation and the humiliation of “living on the dole” (these are the restrictions you live with on _________ -you name it) then no, they are not “livin’ large” even by their standards.
Since very few of the government programs utilized by the poor and working poor actually pay cash, there is, in reality, little to NO “disposable” income for them. There is the aid they get, the wages they get and the difference of that supposed “disposable income” does not actually exist. Of course you two are intelligent enough to know that and were just trying to make a point thinking we didn’t, right?
One would think that, in today’s economic climate while a large percentage of citizens are living paycheck to paycheck and wondering how to pay the bills…they could scale back some of the perks just a bit??? Oh, hell no…
33 – let’s see what you’ve got
37 – by “livin’ large” I was referring to the Obamas…as referenced in post #22 that I was responding to. Once again, please read before jumping to erroneous conclusions.
Start at #11: “Oh, I forget – you liberals think the money belongs to the government”. Did any of us say that? No, no words in anyone’s mouth there!
Then in #12: “…remarkable “turned around and improving” economy” Did I say it was remarkable or recovered? Oh no, no twisting my words there!
In #17: “…who overwhelmingly vote Democrat to keep that money coming in” and “the Bush rebate checks helped the average tax-paying citizen far more than Obama’s stimulus”. Do you have any source or proof for either statement? No dishonesty or partisan rhetoric there!
That is just in this one thread. You twist, you exaggerate, you parrot the talking points, you make accusations not in evidence and then whine that others do so. Dare I borrow your line? Must be the conservative in you. “And it’s that twisted sense of logic that makes these arguments pointless”.
Do you have any credible source for the “daily caller” and the writer claiming 1.4 billion in “perks”? Do you have any comparisons to previous first family expenses? No, but that did not stop Kathie from posting her right wing drivel nor you from applauding it. And still you whine that Kristen or I are just so partisan. Do you own a mirror?
#27 IO can’t decide whether the woman in the video is a fake. If she isn’t, do you seriously think somebody like that REALLY knows what she’s talking about?
40 – Quoting your #9 – “The economy has turned around and is improving and you cannot stop it or deny it, not honestly and truthfully anyway.” I simply added my own adjective “remarkable” as sarcasm. And “recovery” is another word for “turning around”. Try again.
As for your examples at 11 and 17 – those are stated as my opinions, based on my own observations and are just as valid (or more so) as most of the partisan pap that you regularly post on these blogs. I was not twisting your words, or anyone else’s there…and was not putting words in any one person’s mouth. General observations – kinda’ like the ones you like to make about conservatives.
As for the remainder of your post – the same can be turned around and said about you and many of the sources (Mother Jones, Alternet, Media Matters), talking points, accusations and left-wing drivel that you toss around here on a regular basis.
Arguments with you always result in a “tit for tat”. I’m done with it. Have a good day.
40 – BTW where did I use the word “recovery” or “recovered” in #12? Oh wait…I DIDN’T.
NOW I’m done.
Not to dispute the lady that she got her phone from Obama, but:
“The FCC’s LifeLine Assistance program was set up in the ’90s to help low-income families with monthly landline bills. Over the past few years, the program has put more than 12 million wireless feature phones into the hands of low-income Americans.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/story/2012-06-01/low-income-lifeline-plan/55315532/1
Oh yes, I am the one who always does that. Just me. No one else at all.
“There are three primary companies providing the LifeLine service – SafeLink Wireless, Assurance Wireless and ReachOut Wireless. Safelink, the largest player in the business, is owned by the world’s richest man, Mexican multi-billionaire Carlos Slim.
The free government cell phone scam is very profitable for the companies involved. Obviously. A billionaire like Carlos Slim wouldn’t be involved otherwise.”
“if you’re an average, hardworking American citizen who pays for your own cell phone or land line telephone, you’re also paying for these deadbeats’ free cell phones and free minutes”
http://www.fortliberty.org/the-government-handing-out-free-cell-phones-and-youre-paying-for-it.html
obama and his followers give him his own page! They are so proud of him.
http://obamaphone.net/
Ok, no one’s voting for Rmoney because some poor lady has a cell phone. No one.
Sadly, b.o.h.i.c.a. doubtless believes that the Obama phone meme is true too.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/why-phone-cable-internet-bills-cost-much-130914030.html
“In his book, he tells of a woman who in 1984 paid $9.51 for her local phone service. He writes:
“By 2003 her bill had swollen fourfold to $38.90. In the two decades since the breakup of the AT&T monopoly, even after adjusting for inflation, [her] telephone cost $2.30 for each dollar paid in 1984. And that was without any charges for long-distance calls.”
Of cable service Johnston writes:
“Since 1995, average cable prices have been rising 2.6 times faster than the cost of living, reaching an average of almost $53 a month for basic, no frill service in 2009, FCC reports show….
According to SNL Kagan, a market research firm, the average cable bill in 2011 was $78, almost double the price of $40 in 2001 and significantly higher than the FCC figure.
How did this happen?”
You can lead the right wing to water, but you cannot make him drink.
#46 So it took you since the 1990s to catch up that folks have been getting subsidized phones, bohica?
Well,I must admit, you libs are experts on handouts and how to get them, gdad. I really don’t know much about them.
You can lead the leftwing to water, but they will want it for FREE.
Right, Sandi? Give us your personnal experience on how these programs work?
I truly doubt it is possible but I am offering to show you something FOX and right wing media refuse to b.o.h.i.c.a.
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/9/19/david_cay_johnston_the_fine_print_how_big_companies_use_plain_english_to_rob_you_blind
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/18/free_lunch_how_the_wealthiest_americans
Then you get back to me and tell me who gets the hand-outs and who pays them.
Since this bears repeating, bias is not wrong. Being wrong is wrong.
People keep screaming about UFO`s..I haven`t personally seen one, but I can gar-on-tee if they are close, Sandi Saunders and her ilk are going to give them foreign-aid.
#50 Yeah, bohica, I a real expert. I spent about 90 seconds googling to come up with how the program started. I can provide free lessons on how to do that if you’re really jealous and want to learn.
#50 BTW, bohica, I’ll leave it up to you to guess how I just knew that the right wasn’t telling the whole story about the “Obamaphones.” (HINT: Their lips were moving)
Speaking of bias:
http://www.newsofinterest.tv/politics/media_issues/demnow_npr_controlled.php
“Democracy Now! is a United States daily progressive, nonprofit, independently syndicated program of news, analysis, and opinion”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Now!
gdad, Now, I will try and go slow for you. If you would try and READ the link I PROVIDED, under obamaphones, you will see how the plan was started and how YOU can get one.
Now, don’t hurt yourself, when you hit your head and go, DOH!
gdad, another great find, when you Google “obama”.
“Once this story gets reported in the national media, it’s going to be pretty embarrassing for the White House. Who wants to have their name associated with violent street thugs”
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981668694
I must be pretty good at the “google thing”.
Speaking of bias from a biased source, yes b.o.h.i.c.a. we were all aware of your ability to do so.
#56 I see, bohica doesn’t like to hear in response to her/his/its unwarranted insult that all I did to learn about the program was google. And that unlike bohica, I learned that the program actually started 14 years ago and continued under Bush. He/she/it wants to “blame” (I put blame in quotes because parts of the program are quite useful) the whole thing on Obama, but now poor bohica has to face the fact that this isn’t strictly an Obama program.
As I offered before, bohica, I can help you learn how to use google to find out more of the whole story instead of just the slanted crap that fits your predetermined viewpoint.
#57 Now that was some silly stupidity, bohica. No, I take that back. I’ve seen right wingers trying to sort of blame Obama for damage done by the drought, so I guess nothing’s too silly for Obama haters like you.
gdad (He/She/IT/Thing)
“As I offered before, bohica, I can help you learn how to use google to find out more of the whole story instead of just the slanted crap that fits your predetermined viewpoint”
Now that’s rich! Pot calling the kettle and saying, “predetermined viewpoint”!
You can’t read comments, how can you teach anything? Now, that is funny.
How’s your head? Have you gotten your FREE phone yet? I can help you find out how to get one.
Now, off to find more obama stories!