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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release September 2, 2012


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT CAMPAIGN EVENT

National Railroad Museum
Green Bay, Wisconsin


3:27 P.M. CDT


THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Green Bay! (Applause.) Before I begin, I've got to make an admission to you. I tell you what, whoever set this up hit a soft spot in my heart. I'm the biggest railroad guy you've ever known. (Applause.) I have made -- I have traveled round trip from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, D.C., a 250-mile round trip, over 7,900 times, man. I am a railroad guy. (Applause.) Thirty-six years, every day; never lived in Washington. Came home all the time to see that great son of mine and his brother and sister and my grandkids.

I tell you what, gosh, it's great to be here. (Applause.) And by the way, I heard you've got a team here. (Applause.) I heard it when I was in eighth grade, and let me tell you why -- Green Bay has always had, and the Packers, a special place in my heart and the heart of all the guys -- this is serious -- the heart of all the guys I went to a Catholic boys school with. I went to 12 years of Catholic grade school and high school, and the high school I went to was taught by an order of priests called the Norbertines -- you've heard of them. (Applause.) Well, I want to tell you, I know you know there are abbeys in De Pere. And we always started home room with a prayer in a Catholic school. And at our school, it was "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost" -- and Vince Lombardi, and it would go from there. (Applause.)

I tell you, home room in the fall at Archmere Academy was a lot different than any other time of the year. That's when we learned the names of the 12 Apostles -- (laughter) - Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jimmy Taylor, Max McGee, Boyd Dowler, Ray Nitschke, Willie Davis, Herb Adderley, Don Chandler. You get the point. That's all we heard about, man. (Applause.) You think I'm kidding -- I'm not kidding.

You see, this is how it worked. Our headmaster, who was from Wisconsin -- the headmaster's name was Justin E. Diney, D-i-n-e-y. He used to sign everything "JED"; we called him "the head-JED". (Laughter.) Not to his face, not to his face. (Laughter.) And he'd come over the PA system in the morning and he'd say, Gentlemen, the Packers won yesterday. Therefore, there will be no last period today. (Laughter and applause.) That's why we love the Packers, man. (Applause.) If it wasn't your favorite team, it was your number-two team, I promise you.

Let me start by recognizing a great Congresswoman who I believe will soon be your next great senator, Tammy Baldwin. Tammy, where are you? There you are. Good to see you, Tammy. (Applause.)

And I'd like to recognize all the elected officials here and thank them for coming, but particularly Jamie Wall. Jamie, you're the next congressman. Where's Jamie? (Applause.) I just want to make sure, because I know how important the members of the House and the Senate are -- just remember, Jamie, I recognized you, man. I don't want you to pretend I didn't know you, okay, when you're there. (Laughter.)

Brett, thank you for that generous introduction, and it's an honor to be with Bret, to be with a real labor guy -- organized labor guy on the eve of Labor Day. It's a good thing. (Applause.) I know how to say union. I know how to say union. (Applause.) I got elected because of unions. (Applause.) The steelworkers were the first union to ever endorse me. (Applause.)

But there's something more special -- even more special about Bret, if you can say more special, and it is. This guy was an aviator in one of the most decorated and celebrated divisions of the United States Army -- the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Division. These guys are real, man. (Applause.) Bret, thank you for years of service.

Folks, this country, as you all know -- and I apologize. By the way, I've been here for a half an hour. I want you to know that. (Laughter.) So I don't want any record saying I was late. But the good news was there were 250 people still trying to get in. So I apologize for you all standing this long. (Applause.)

But, folks, to state the obvious, this country faces the starkest choice for President in my memory. And now that Governor Ryan and -- excuse me, Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan have been nominated --

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, no, no, no, no, no, I don't need your boos; we need your votes. Not boos, just votes. (Applause.)

Now that they're a team -- and I mean this sincerely -- those stark differences are even more stark. Because Congressman Ryan has now given absolutely clear definition to Governor Romney's vague commitments he's been making the last year and a half, and I mean that seriously. In a strange way, we sort of have two incumbent parties. We know exactly what the other team is going to do, and I'm not joking.

The reason we do is the House Republican Party has already passed the Ryan budget, has already put in place everything that Romney says he's promising to do for the whole nation. So all you've got to do is take a look. Just take a look at what they did. And we're going to point out what they did in that Republican House, because it is the -- honestly, the best way to show the differences.

They call their plan new, bold and gutsy. (Laughter.) No, that's how they characterize it. Bit in the neighborhood I come from, there's nothing gutsy about giving a trillion dollar, new tax cut for millionaires only. (Applause.) And that's -- look, folks, there's nothing bold about gutting Medicare and turning it into a voucher system in order to pay for those cuts in taxes for millionaires. And what's new about their plan? Not only it's not new, it's not fair -- it's simply not right. And it will not grow the economy. How do we know? They tried it before, and it didn't work before. Folks, we've seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. (Applause.)

It ends in lost jobs, stagnant wages, watching the equity in your home evaporate, watching your retirement accounts get decimated. It ends in a catastrophe for the middle class. It ends in the great recession of 2008.

And listen to the theme they're now running on, and I quote: "Restore the dreams and greatness of this country." Restore the dreams and greatness of this country. Why do we have to restore those dreams and greatness? What they're not telling you is who took them away. (Applause.) What they're not telling you is the very proposals that the Congressman voted for, for the last 14 years, the very economic policy the Governor supported, as both Governor and as a businessman, they're the very policies that put America's greatness in jeopardy.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you listen to their convention, they talked about the state of the nation and all these terrible things that happened in 2009. How do they think we got there? No, no, really, think about it. Do they think we have amnesia? (Laughter.) How do they think this happened? Did it just fall from the sky on September the 15th, 2008, when Lehman Brothers went under?

Ladies and gentlemen, my little -- my son -- my grandson, Hunter, his little sister is a little older than he is; as she would say, Pop, did Casper the friendly ghost do it? (Laughter.) Who did it? How did we get here?

Folks, there's a lot more they didn't tell you at their convention. When Congressman Ryan was elected in 1988 [sic], and took office in '99, there was a Democratic administration. We had a balanced budget. The middle class was thriving. (Applause.) What they didn't say was that the day we were sworn in, before the President sat behind the desk, the Resolute, in his office, he was handed a tab for $1 trillion in deficit for that year before we got started, and the American middle class was devastated.

And much of what they did tell you wasn't on the level at that convention. You heard Congressman Ryan on Wednesday night blame the President -- now, listen to this now. He blamed the President because the recommendations of a bipartisan debt commission that we appointed weren't acted on -- the so-call Simpson-Bowles Commission. He said, the President appointed this commission and the recommendations were never acted on. What he didn't tell you is he sat on that commission. (Laughter.) No, no, no, he sat on that commission. And where he and his House Republican friends that he leads -- had they voted with the commission, it would have been voted on, but he voted no. He would not let it go to the floor. (Applause.) He walked away.

And by the way, the commission he's taking about recommended a balanced approach to bring down our debt and control the debt crisis. Here's what they said: They said, we recommend you cut $3 in spending for every dollar in revenue you raise. The President's plan calls for a similar approach, but Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan reject that balanced approach. Romney has repeatedly said that he would reject any deal to bring down the debt that included $10 in spending cuts, even if it had only one dollar in taxes for the wealthy. And Congressman Ryan failed to mention any of that, a convenient omission I'd say.

I love these guys. Oh, I love these guys. (Laughter.) I love these guys how they claim to care about the deficit. When we left office, it was in balance. Ladies and gentlemen, the thing I most love about them is how they discovered the middle class at their convention. (Laughter.) Wasn't that amazing? All of a sudden, their heart was bleeding for the middle class. Whoa. I was impressed. (Laughter.) I thought where have I been, Tammy, the last four years. I must have gotten it all wrong.

Listen to what Congressman Ryan had to say in his convention speech. He's a good guy, by the way, a great father, as is Romney. They're good men. But listen to what he had to say. He said, "The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves." The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves. That's what he said.

Well, folks, so let's measure what he and Governor Romney want to do for those who cannot defend or care for themselves. And the best way to do that, as my dad would say -- my dad had a great expression. Any time someone would tell him this is what I value, this is what I care about, he said, whoa, whoa, don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, I'll tell you what you value. Show me your budget, I'll tell you what you value. (Applause.)

Well, folks, they'll cry foul, but let's take a look at their budget to understand what they value. Massive cuts in Medicaid, throwing 19 million people off health care, including a million seniors and several million children.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: By the way, I'm not making this stuff up. Massive cuts in Medicare. Folks, let's be honest here, what the President and I are talking about is protecting Medicare. And I find it fascinating that these guys expect the people to believe that guys like me who have spent my whole life and my party who spent their whole time generating, creating and caring for Medicare are somehow against it now, and they're for it -- when they've been against it or want to do less of it for the past 40 years.

When Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan are talking about creating a new system, what some are calling a voucher-care system; that's what it is. What -- the voucher-care system is going to replace the Medicare system. It will give seniors a stipend, a voucher worth less than their Medicare costs now. And then it's going to say to them, you go out there and shop for the best insurance you can buy with this voucher, the best deal -- no, that's what it is -- if it weren't so serious, you'd think I was making it up.

My mom, God love her, who lived till 93, we lost her a couple of years ago. She was at the last convention with me. I can't picture -- my mom was a smart woman. But my mom, I can't picture handing her a voucher at age 80 and saying, now, you go out on the insurance market and you figure out what's best for you. Ladies and gentlemen, it's just that simple. We are for Medicare. They are for voucher-care. It's basic.

And they are for massive cuts in Social Security for future generations, massive cuts in education, eliminating tax credits to send your kids to college. Tens of thousands of people in this state take advantage of that to keep their kids in school. Pell grants, they cut by an average of $1,000 for the 9 million working-class kids who are in college now benefitting themselves and soon to benefit America.

And they put insurance companies -- these are the facts -- they get rid of Obamacare. What does that mean? It means the insurance companies are back in charge of your health care, allowing them to cut off your coverage when you get sick, or when you hit what they call your limit, allowing them to change -- change -- the rates that they charge for women versus men --

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- knocking 6.6 million young adults off their parents' health care coverage.

Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party. No, for real. This is a different breed of cat. This is not even Mitt Romney's father's Republican Party. (Laughter and applause.)

And by the way, there's another thing they didn't tell you at their convention, they didn't tell you why they were eviscerating all these efforts to help the working and middle-class people of America. They're doing it all in the service of massive tax cuts for the very wealthy.

Now, we use phrases like massive -- and they said, well, there's another elected official, let me give you two specific examples. Five hundred billion dollars of the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy goes to 120,000 families. Hear what I just said? One-half trillion dollars will go to 120,000 American families. And on top of that, they want to add another $250,000-tax-cut-per-year for anybody making a million dollars or more.

Look, guys, they talked about the middle class at their convention. What they didn't tell you is this tax policy of theirs carries a big price tag. As the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center points out, middle-class families with children will pay an average of $2,000 a year more to pay for those tax cuts for 120,000 families and beyond.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's a fact. And on top of that, Governor Romney says in his first hundred days he would repeal Wall Street reform. He'd let the banks begin to write their own rules again.

And listen to what he said and just briefly skirted about in foreign policy in his speech. In Iraq, where my son served for a year, we lost 4,488 Fallen Angels -- 32,227 wounded, over 16,000 requiring care for the rest of their lives. And Romney said it was a mistake to end that war by bringing all our warriors home.

In Afghanistan, we have lost 1,980 Fallen Angels as of yesterday. And I'm precise, because every single one of those lives deserved to be recognized. And God only knows what happened in the last 24 hours. (Applause.) And as of yesterday, 17,382 of our warriors have been wounded, some mortally.

And Romney thought the decision that the President of the United States -- we have 50 allies working with us, NATO and other countries, in Afghanistan. The President organized them. All 50 of them said it's time to set a date to hand over responsibility to the Afghans and bring our 90,000 troops home. (Applause.) And what did Romney say? He said that was a mistake.

Look, I've seen these warriors. I have traveled in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq over 20 times. I have seen these kids. They're not kids. I've seen these men and women. I've been up in the so-called FOB, a forward operating base, above the mountains, above the Kunar Valley with six kids sitting on a hilltop getting shot at every single night, holding people off. I've been out there in those up-armored Humvees and those MRAPS in the scorching deserts of Iraq. I wish every member of the American public could see what I saw on those multiple trips to those countries.

These kids are incredible. This 9/11 Generation, over 2,800,000 thousand young women and men since 9/11 raised their right hand with a recruiter and said, I want to join -- knowing with almost certainty they were going to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Over 2,200,000 of them have gone. Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the finest generations in the history of America and they should be recognized. And they are. (Applause.)

We only have one sacred obligation. We have a lot of obligations, only one sacred obligation -- to prepare those we send to war and care for them when they come home. (Applause.) And now, he wants to move from cooperation with Russia to confrontation with Putin's Russia. And these guys say President Obama is out of touch? Whoa.

How many of you all have a Swiss bank account -- (laughter) -- untold millions in the Cayman Islands? How many of you if you're running for office refuse to let the American people see your tax returns? Out of touch? Whoa.

What Romney and Ryan espouse -- and I know they believe it and mean it -- what they espouse is a social policy right out of the '60s, a foreign policy with echoes of the Cold War and economic policies that brought us the Great Recession.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is no time to turn back. We must continue to move forward. Your very standard of living is at stake.

Folks, I'm absolutely certain -- there's not a single doubt in my mind -- that we're on our way to rebuilding this country stronger than it was before this recession. (Applause.) I am absolutely certain we're on our way to rebuilding the middle class more vibrant than it was before this recession, because I know given a half a chance the American people never, ever, ever let the country down. (Applause.)

We believe in the American people, because I know you. We know you. And it's never, never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. (Applause.) So, ladies and gentlemen, join us. Help us finish what we started.

With your help, we'll win Wisconsin and we will win the presidency. Thank you all and may God bless you. And may God protect our troops. On Wisconsin! (Applause.)

END 3:50 P.M. CDT