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http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/09/biden-laying-the-groundwork-for-ryan-debate-136613.html?hp=r6

Biden laying the groundwork for Ryan debate


CHESTERFIELD, Va. -- Vice President Joe Biden used his appearance here Tuesday to continue laying the groundwork for his debate with GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan just over two weeks from now in Danville, Kentucky.

"Congressman Ryan has given a clear meaning to the vague assertions Gov. Romney has been talking about to this point," Biden said.

Citing the proposed cuts to education and Medicare, Biden used the Ryan budget as the bridge between a broad range of attacks on Romney's lack of policy specifics, his "47 percent" remark from the hidden fundraiser video that made the rounds last week and Romney's wealth, as evidenced by the 14 percent tax rate that Romney's newly released tax returns show he paid for 2011.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are in this together, we are one nation under God, and if the 47 percent doesn't make it, the country doesn't make it," Biden said.

Biden closed by linking the attack to a pitch to veterans--a group that's concentrated in large numbers in Virginia and that the Obama campaign has been trying to win over. Troops injured in battle require the expensive, long-term healthcare he said they wouldn't receive under the approach to governing that the Republican ticket is proposing.

They, also, aren't victims, Biden said.

"America is not a country of people who view themselves as victims," he said.

"When I hear Romney and Ryan and this new Republican party in Congress talking about decline and dependency, I honest to god do not recognize the country they're talking about."