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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release September 29, 2012


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT

Wa-Ke Hatchee Community Center
Fort Myers, Florida


11:50 A.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Fort Myers! (Applause.) It's good to see you all. (Applause.) It's great to be with you all. God love you. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you all so very, very much. It's great to be back in Fort Myers. I tell you what, I always joke, a man should always have two things -- one, a brother with a place in Florida, and two, a brother-in-law with a pickup truck. (Laughter.) And so for the longest time, my brother had a place here in Fort Myers -- (applause) -- and I got to come down here all the time. And then he sold it. And I haven't spoken to him since. (Laughter.) No, I'm only kidding, only kidding.

Since I've been here a number of times over the last 20 years, I knew it was going to be hot -- you mind if I take my coat off, with your permission? (Applause.) All right, okay, thank you.

All right, Jamie, thank you very much. When I got here, and I got introduced to Jamie, I thought that Jamie was my sister-in-law. She looks like my sister-in-law Kelly more than you can imagine. So, Jamie, maybe we're related somehow somewhere down the line. (Laughter.) But thank you for that introduction and thank you for all the hard work that you have underway, and all of you in here for being here on a Saturday morning.

Folks, look, I want to get right to it with you all. The fact of the matter is you know as well as I do this country is facing the starkest choice, the starkest choice for President that we've faced, at least in my memory. And now that Governor Romney has made it official and he's picked Paul Ryan -- I might add, and I mean this sincerely, they're both decent men. They're both good family men, and they both are good --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, no, no, no, no.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't need your boos. We need your help. I think it's important -- look, I want to be straight with you. (Applause.) I have a bad reputation of being straight -- (laughter) -- telling you what I think and sometimes all that I think.

But look, folks, all kidding aside -- in picking Paul Ryan, what Congressman -- what Governor Romney did in picking Paul Ryan is he has given clear definition to all those vague assertions he was making during his primary campaign. He talked a lot about a lot of the things that Paul Ryan is talking about, but never with any detail. But by picking Paul Ryan and laying out why he was picking Paul Ryan, he picked Paul Ryan because Paul Ryan does represent the ideological -- how can I say it -- the center of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. He said, basically, that's why I'm picking Paul Ryan.

So now we don't have to guess about what Governor Romney means when he talks about Medicare vaguely and Social Security and education and all these things because it's almost like two incumbents running, because Paul Ryan -- I mean this sincerely, now, I want you to focus on this, if you would, please -- Paul Ryan introduced a budget, a Republican budget, in the House of Representatives, controlled by the Republicans, that in fact passed. It laid out -- it lays out in stark detail what they would do on everything from Medicare to Medicaid to Social Security to education, to the debt -- I mean, across the board.

So we don't have to wonder anymore, we don't have to wonder anymore exactly what does Governor Romney mean when he says A, B, C or D. And what they're doing these days, if you notice, is they're not talking anymore about what Paul Ryan and Governor Romney are really for. They're spending an awful lot of time telling you what we, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, are against and what we're going to -- and what we've done. They just attack everything.

Folks, the truth of the matter is that nowhere is it more clear what they would do than in Medicare. Let me start off and talk about -- I'm just going to give you a few specific examples to make a larger point, I hope.

Number one, they have laid out clearly -- they say that what Barack Obama and Joe Biden did is they've endangered Medicare. The stole money from Medicare and they've done it to get Obamacare, and all this -- and you've seen the ads and you hear everything they say.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Every one of you in this room who's on Medicare or knows someone, a mom or dad who's on Medicare, knows that since Barack Obama, President Obama acted, your parents have and those of you on Medicare have more benefits than before. (Applause.)

Any of you on Medicare know that now, if you've hit that doughnut hole, where you have to pay all of your prescription drug costs, you're saving $800 a year more than you would have, had Barack not acted.

Number two, if you give in for -- you can now go in for a wellness visit, that unscheduled visit, the visit you think you need. You don't have to pay any co-pay. You don't have to pay a co-pay for regularly scheduled things like colonoscopies and mammograms. (Applause.)

So it's just a bald-faced misrepresentation. I don't know how they can say that with so many Medicare recipients knowing that they're better off.

Secondly, the thing most people don't know is that the action the President took has actually strengthened the Medicare trust fund, and exceeded its life out to 2024. (Applause.) It was never there before. (Applause.)

So, folks, look, I say to those who may see this on television or read it in the newspaper, ask yourself, if what the Republicans -- if what Romney and Ryan are saying about Obama and Biden is true on Medicare, why would the American Medical Association endorse our position? Why would the American Hospital Association? And most importantly, why would AARP endorse -- (applause).

They have no credibility -- they have no credibility on this issue. And secondly, what they don't tell you is equally as important as what they tell you. They don't tell you what they would do about Medicare. The first thing they would do, if they took the action they're proposing to take were they to win in January of next year, you'd eliminate the new benefits -- 800 bucks more for prescription drugs, wellness visits, co-pays, et cetera. It would also move Medicare trust fund to insolvency in 2016. That's three years from now.

And the third thing, what they really don't want to talk about anymore -- they don't want to tell you they're not for Medicare. They've for a thing I call Vouchercare.

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Any one of you -- these are the facts. These are the facts. Any one of you -- they say, oh, it won't affect anybody on Medicare now. It won't kick in for 10 years. But if you're 55 years old, it's going to kick in.

And here's what they did. First, a couple years ago, the intellectual gravamen of the right, came up and laid down a proposal. Ryan introduced a proposal in the House of Representatives saying that we're going to give mom and dad a voucher, a voucher, and that voucher is essentially a chit worth X amount of dollars. And they're going to be able to go out there, and they're going to be able to buy private insurance, or buy back into Medicare, if they want.

The problem they don't tell you about is there's not enough money to get the same coverage. So what happened? This outfit called the Congressional Budget Office, so-called CBO -- I apologize for the wonkish talk here, but everybody acknowledges they are an honest broker -- they came along and said it's going to cost seniors, who are 55 years old now, when they get to Medicare, it's going to cost them an additional $6,500 a year to get the same benefits they get now.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Now, wait a minute now. After they were told that -- this goes to credibility -- after they were told that, what did they do? They still introduced it in the House, and every Republican, but a few, voted for it. But for the Democratic Senate it would have passed. And Mitt Romney said at the time, were he President and this passed, he would sign it into law; sign into law the requirement you all come up with $6,400 a year or more for the same benefits.

And now they say to us, oh, no, no, no, no, Joe, we don't have that plan anymore. (Laughter.) Well, guess what, they got a message from the American people. They say, we got a new plan -- new plan -- that's going to work better and save Medicare. That plan, though -- a Harvard study comes out and says that new plan, still a voucher, would cost somebody 55 years old right now, by the time they get on it, $60,000 a year or more over the life of Medicare.

Ladies and gentlemen, the reason I bother to tell you this is -- the reason I bother to tell you this is --the fact of the matter is it goes to motive, it goes to motive. Can you imagine -- those of you that know me -- can you imagine me voting for a proposal adding $6,400 a year to the cost of Medicare, or $60,000 over the life of it?

Ladies and gentlemen, in the neighborhood I come from -- I mean this sincerely -- the neighborhood I come from, that would mean the people getting Medicare would not be able to get Medicare. They would not get nearly the benefits they have now. I don't know anybody in the neighborhood I come from that has an extra $6,400 a year for health care when they're a senior. (Applause.) And I don't know -- can you imagine the President -- can you imagine President Barack Obama putting forward a plan that said it would cost another 60,000 bucks?

Ladies and gentlemen, they also sat there at their convention, and it was amazing how they talked about the urgency to get the national debt under control. Remember they had that big clock in the back when all was happening? (Laughter.) And they said, we realize that the President was handed a difficult situation -- (laughter) -- we realize that, but, you know, he hasn't done much with it, and here's what he hasn't done. And we -- we are ready to act urgently on the national debt.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, let's not look at just what they say; look at what they do. A couple of things they don't tell you is the last time they were in charge, Congressman Ryan voted for and Governor Romney approved -- said he agreed with all the things that were done last -- the last time around. Last time around, what caused this national debt? How did this all of a sudden happen? When Clinton left, we had a balanced budget and a surplus, and things were looking good. (Applause.)

So what happened? What happened? They talk about this Great Recession that they acknowledge as if it fell from the sky. (Laughter.) Like, oh, my God. In September 2008, bang, all of a sudden this thing happened.

As my little granddaughter would say, who did it, Pop? Casper? Casper the Ghost? (Laughter.) I mean, come on. Let's get serious here. How did we get this debt?

Ladies and gentlemen, they put two wars on a credit card, not paying a penny. Not paying a penny even though I introduced legislation to pay for that war. They voted against it. Two, they voted for a new entitlement program without paying one penny for it. And number three, they added another trillion dollars in the tax cut for the very wealthy.

So what was the result? These are the facts, folks. These are the facts. The result was by the time the reins got turned back over to Barack and me, they had doubled the national debt in eight years. Doubled the national debt in eight years. They left us, on the day -- the fourth, fifth, the sixth day -- I can't recall -- after being in office, we were sitting in the Oval Office, and Larry Summers, the chief economic advisor in the economic team came in and said, Mr. President, looking at this year's budget, you are going to have a trillion-dollar deficit. He said, I haven't done anything yet. (Laughter.) I'm serious. They said, no, Mr. President, the budget they passed in October of last year guarantees that no matter what you do, you're going to have a trillion-dollar debt this year in the budget -- a trillion-dollar deficit to be precise.

So, ladies and gentlemen, these guys talk about the national debt. They talk about this -- and what they did generated the slowest growth in private sector jobs since World War II. It gave us this Great Recession.

And, look, what they haven't told you is what they've been unwilling to do to do anything about it. Here's the deal, folks. We laid out a $4 trillion debt-reduction plan over the next 10 years -- $4 trillion. We've already passed a trillion of it. Ladies and gentlemen, these guys vote against everything. (Laughter.) No, no, no, I really mean it. Not only do they say they don't like our plan -- okay, I get that. You don't like our plan. What's your plan?

So you go out there and you look at -- you set up these very impressive bipartisan commissions. You hear them talked about: Simpson-Bowles, Rivlin-Domenici, leading Democrats and Republicans. Every one of those plans they rejected. Paul Ryan even voted against the Simpson-Bowles plan he talks about now, as a member of the commission. He wouldn't even vote to let it get to the United States House of Representatives and Senate to vote on it. Why? It's important you know why. Because they will not vote for a single, solitary reduction in the debt if it includes one dollar in new taxes for millionaires. Not even one dollar.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's a fact. I don't need your boos, I need your votes and organization here. (Applause.)

So, folks, I love how they bleed over the national debt. They are so concerned about it. Mitt Romney, if you recall, when asked, well, Governor, would you have a plan to reduce the national debt if it included $10 in cuts in federal spending and only $1 in new revenue? He said no.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not on the level. This is not on the level. These guys are not about to vote to reduce the national debt or have a plan if it requires millionaires to pay a cent. And the amazing thing is their concern. What's even more amazing -- I watched at their convention -- (laughter) -- is they discovered the middle class. (Laughter.) It was like, my God, there's a middle class. (Laughter.) There it is. There it is. I never heard those guys use the phrase "middle class" more probably in their whole lives than they did at that convention. (Laughter.)

And they talked about the concern of the neighborhoods that I come from -- people with four kids, three-bedroom houses, those kind of regular and normal neighborhoods, okay? And they talked about how they really are concerned about education and health care, and they go down the list. Well, my dad, God love him, used to have an expression. When anybody would come up to him and say -- his name was Joe -- Joe, I'll tell you what I value. My father would always look at him and say, hey, Charlie, 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.)

So, folks, let's take a look at how much they value the middle class. Look at their budget, because they've already passed one in the House of Representatives, the one embraced by Governor Romney. Look at what it's done. I care about the middle class, but I'm going to cut 19 million people off of Medicaid.

Now, a lot of people say, well, that's all poor folk. Guess what: a million of those people are seniors, and the vast majority of them are middle-class folks who in many states had to go out and sell everything they had first -- their home, their farm, whatever savings they had -- in order to be able to get into a nursing home. And the only reason they're able to be in a nursing home now is because they're what's called dual-eligibles. They get both Medicare and Medicaid -- middle-class folks. They'd be knocked out. Where does he expect those folks to go? Where are they going to go?

Ladies and gentlemen, he talks about he cares about education. They'd knock 200,000 kids out of early education. They eliminate -- take $1,000 out of Pell grants, what we got -- we went from 6 million to 9 million kids in college now from working-class families. God only knows they'll cut -- what that would mean, how many would have to drop out.

And for those of you who have kids in school now, one of the things that's helping is the $2,500 tax credit we give you off your bottom line. They'd wipe that out. (Applause.)

And so much more I will not take the time to tell you in this hot gym. But let me tell you this, folks. (Laughter.) You've got to ask yourself a question. Why are they doing this? They're not bad guys -- why are they doing this? Well, because they have to. Let me tell you why they have to. There is no way to accommodate the more than $2 trillion in tax cuts for people making a minimum of a million dollars a year if they don't do it. All this adds to the deficit. So they've got to go out there. This is all in the service of tax cuts for the super wealthy.

And by the way, I come from the state of Delaware. We have one of the highest per-capita incomes in the nation. And one of the things I found out is very wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor folks. They're just as decent. They're just as good. But guess what? They're not even asking for these tax cuts.

Let me give you an example. By extending the Bush tax cut for the wealthy, here's what happens: $500 billion -- $500 billion -- goes to 120,000 families. Five hundred billion -- a half-a-trillion dollars. How can that be right? How can that be right? The average income of those folks -- and they're good folks -- is $8.4 million a year. They don't need a tax cut. But guess what? Middle-class families need a hand up. They need a little bit of help. (Applause.)

Folks, they vote against extending the middle-class tax cut permanently. They vote against it. Why? Because they were holding it hostage to make sure you could continue the tax cuts I just mentioned. And on top of it -- it almost sounds unbelievable, but on top of it, Romney adds another tax cut, total cost to the economy: $1.7 trillion. But guess what? It's $250,000 a year in additional tax cuts to those same 120,000 families and anybody that makes more than a million dollars.

Ladies and gentlemen, all this has a gigantic cost. There's an outfit called the Tax Policy Center, made up of former Bush and Clinton and a bipartisan group of experts. And they did an analysis, like they do all these tax proposals. And they point out, if, in fact, Romney and Ryan were elected and put their tax proposal in place, it would increase taxes on middle-class people with children by $2,000 a year.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've seen this movie before. We've seen this movie before. Massive tax cuts for the very wealthy, letting Wall Street and big banks write their own rules again. We know how it ended. It ended in a catastrophe for the middle class and the Great Recession of 2008.

And, ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you today, we will not go back to that policy. (Applause.) We can't go back to that policy. America can't afford to go back to that policy.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, the President and I have a different way forward. Let me tell you what our plan is. In addition to having created now over 5 million private sector jobs -- 5.1 since we came -- since we got control -- (applause) -- our plan to continue this is basically made up of four parts.

One, we're going to create a million new manufacturing jobs in this country in the next four years. (Applause.) And here's how we're going to do it; we're going to level the playing field by continuing to bring actions against China and other countries who undercut American jobs. (Applause.)

We're going to do it by giving tax breaks to companies that bring factories back to America, not companies that take factories out of America. (Applause.)

And we're going to continue to knock down those barriers that exist around the world saying, no American goods here. What we're going to do is level that playing field, as we have, because guess what, folks: As I go around the world, I've traveled over 600,000 miles just since I've been Vice President and so many more before that, people around the world are looking to buy the best products in the world made by the most productive workers in the world, and those products have stamped Made in America on them. (Applause.) If we knock it down, they will buy our products. (Applause.)

In addition to a million new manufacturing jobs, we're going to cut our oil imports in half by 2020, produce more American-made energy from oil, natural gas, clean coal, renewable energy, biofuels. Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people don't understand this -- right now -- I love to hear them talk about their energy policy, which is: Drill, baby, drill. Right?

AUDIENCE: Right.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Okay, let me tell you something about drilling. Do you all realize that there are more gas and oil rigs working today [in the United States,] pumping today than all the rest of the rigs in the entire rest of the world? Do you know that? That's a fact. That's why we're importing less than we have in decades. That's why -- that's why we're in the position we're moving into.

But, ladies and gentlemen, there is exponentially -- exponential supply of natural gas done right and renewable energy that's available here in this country. That's why we've doubled -- and they voted against it and Romney talked against it -- we've doubled the fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks by 2025. (Applause.)

That will -- by the way, that will save 12 billion barrels of oil over the period of time. I don't know how they don't think conservation is part of this. They sure don't know.

Third, we're going to maintain -- right now, there was a study done by the Cambridge Institute pointing out that the most productive workers in the world, for real, this isn't chauvinism, are American workers. They're three times as productive as our friends in China. Ladies and gentlemen, we want to make sure we have the most productive, educated, best-trained workforce in the world. That's why we insist on 100,000 new math and science teachers. We need that. (Applause.)

And we'll recruit them by giving districts incentives to retain and recruit these folks to our community colleges. We know we can create 2 million American workers, give them the skills for the high-tech manufacturing jobs of the future. There are 600,000 jobs in America today in high-tech manufacturing going unfilled because of the lack of skill. That's why we've paired up the community colleges and these companies, creating thousands and thousands of decent-paying jobs. (Applause.) That they oppose.

And we're not only going to continue to provide tax credits and grants for tuitions for after high school education, but we're going to cut the growth of college tuition in half in the next four years. (Applause.)

Folks -- and we're going to -- we've already reduced the deficit. In four years, we'll reduce it by another trillion dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, look, there's an easy way to do this. We have to make some difficult decisions. We've made them, but we've got to ask the very wealthy to pay more.

And, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to end the war in Afghanistan as we did in Iraq. (Applause.) And in the process -- in the process, over the next decade save over $800 billion, and we're going to come home with that money and put half of it down to reduce the debt and half of it to rebuild America. (Applause.) Roads, bridges, schools -- that will support millions over time; initially tens of thousands of new, good-paying, decent jobs you can raise a family on.

And, folks, one more thing -- one more thing, in this country we only have one truly sacred obligation. We have a lot of obligations to our elderly, to the young, to keep the street -- we have a lot -- but we only have one truly sacred obligation in my view, and that is to equip and support those whom we send to war and care for them when they come home from war. (Applause.)

How many of you -- how many of you either have personally served, have a family member served, or a good friend who's served in either Iraq or Afghanistan? (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, we owe you. We owe you a debt. We owe you a debt that I don't think we can ever fully repay. But, ladies and gentlemen, we owe an incredible debt to those Gold Star families. Every single day I check -- have my staff check and I put in my pocket, the number of what -- I've been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq 20 times. The first time that I encountered what I'm about to talk to you about was early on. I was getting in a C-17 to fly out into Jordan. And I could hear the muffled sounds of steps outside this -- it's basically a cargo aircraft. And the back pulled down, and I could hear a young captain say to me, at that time I was a senator. Senator, permission to bring a Fallen Angel aboard? And they brought in a flag-draped casket. And they strapped it to the floor.

And having a son who spent a year in Iraq, all I could think of was the folks waiting at the other end to receive that body. And they refer to anyone who fall, has fallen in those theaters as angels -- they call them Fallen Angels. Well, that turned that cargo aircraft from an aircraft into a cathedral. And, folks, so I ask every day what's the exact number of the Fallen Angels -- not generally, not an estimate, the exact number because for every one of those women or men, it has transformed a family -- a family we owe.

And thus far, as of today, there are 6,437 fallen heroes; 49,871 visibly wounded and tens of thousands of invisible wounds -- post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury -- thousands, thousands critically wounded will need extensive care the rest of their lives. Those of you of my generation in Vietnam, and I was not in Vietnam, should know the fact, 50 percent of the young women and men wounded in this war would have died had they received the exact same wounds in Vietnam. The good news is they're alive. The good news is they're home. And the good news is with continued, extensive care -- literally -- probably 18,000 of them -- 1,800 of them, with extensive care -- expensive, extensive care, they can lead productive lives. But, ladies and gentlemen, that's our obligation. That's our obligation -- not just now to care for them, but after the parades are over, after the streets are renamed is to keep this as a priority. (Applause.)

Folks, we must never forget their sacrifice and always -- always keep them in our care and our prayers.

Folks, a lot of you assembled here have been through an awful lot these past few years, but you did what Americans always do. You didn't lose faith. You fought back. You didn't give up. As my dad said, you got up.

Folks, there is no quit in America. There is no quit in America. (Applause.) And, ladies and gentlemen, that's why I'm not -- I know I'm not the only one who was offended to hear Governor Romney write off nearly half of the country in his famous 47 percent comment -- 47 percent of the people dependent. If you read the book that Congressman Ryan has written with the two other leading young members of the Republican Party, they call themselves the Young Guns, they talk about -- that's the title of the book "Young Guns," and they talk about this culture of dependency in America. Without acknowledging that, all those people of that 47 percent, 82 percent pay federal taxes. The remainder, 10 percent are seniors on Social Security who don't have to pay -- those who don't have to pay taxes and another chunk of those right now -- right now over 68,000 who are in battle who don't have to pay taxes on their pay. So where's this dependency?

Ladies and gentlemen, the country I know is not a country not willing to take responsibility, not a country that views itself as victims, yet Romney says that he doesn't have to worry about -- he said, "It's not my job to worry about those people," half the people in America.

Folks, when I hear this talk, not just from Romney and Ryan, but from this new Republican Party -- and by the way, this is not your father's Republican Party.

AUDIENCE: No.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: This is not even Mitt Romney's father's Republican Party. (Laughter.) This is nothing like it.

When they talk about the culture of dependency, about America in decline, I can honestly say to you, I don't recognize the country they're talking about. I don't see it. The American people are so much better, so much stronger, take so much more responsibility than these guys give them credit for. (Applause.)

How can -- how can Governor Romney be -- have such a profound misunderstanding of the people of this country? Folks, I've got news for Governor Romney. I got news for Congressman Ryan. America is neither dependent, nor in decline. And, gentlemen: It's never, never been a good bet to bet against the American people. (Applause.) They have never let this country down.

So with your help, we will win Florida. With your help, we'll represent 100 percent of the American people still. And with your help, we will win this election. (Applause.)

God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

END 12:28 P.M. EDT