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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release November 1, 2012


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT

West Middle School
Muscatine, Iowa


12:21 P.M. CDT


THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, it's great to be back in Muscatine. Thank you all. And Angelica -- I was telling Angelica, Angelica became what my father always wanted me to be, he wanted me to be an engineer. (Laughter.) I wasn't smart enough, so I became lawyer. (Laughter.) Angelica, thank you very much for your support and thank you for that introduction.

And one of my best friends ever in elective office, one of the great things about seeking a nomination is you travel the country and you literally not only get supporters who -- it amazes us all how you put your lives on hold to help us try to get nominations or win elections, but you also end up as a consequence of it meeting people who aren't just your political supporters, become your close personal friends. And one of the guys here in the next district over, he came down to see me, is a guy who I know if I call in the middle of the night and said, Jim, I tell you what, pal, I need you to get on a plane and fly to such and such a place, I need your help, he'd do it. And he knows I'd do it for him, my friend Jim Lykam. Jim, Representative Lykam, where are you? (Applause.) This guy is the real deal.

Speaking of real deals, the superintendent, Bill Decker, who if I had him running in front of me when I was trying to play football in college, I'd have been an All-American. (Laughter.) Doing a great, great job here in this district. Thank you, Super.

And I also -- also John Lawrence, the principal here at this great school. The best thing I've noticed about John is his daughter who is over here, and I want to -- who is in a master's program now and doing great work. And I've been running -- crossing paths with a guy that I campaigned for the first time he ran, and it turned out to be a great investment and a great congressman, Dave Loebsack. (Applause.)

Look, folks, if you all have seats up there, you're welcome to take them. You don't have to stand for me. I know you all don't have seats. (Laughter.) But over the last several days the President and I have spoken with FEMA and the Homeland Security and all the governors and the mayors affected by the storm, and I can confidently say that everyone -- mayors, governors, the White House, the administration -- are doing everything in our power to make sure, number one, power comes back on for folks. You guys know what floods are like. You guys know what -- sometimes what bad storms can do and how it can devastate a neighborhood, a community, a state. Well, we're determined to rebuild.

My state of Delaware was in the path of that storm. We're on the Atlantic Ocean, and we didn't get nearly as -- hit as badly as just 35 miles away. Up the coast is Ocean City, New Jersey and Atlantic City. You see how badly they've been hurt.

I was talking to Mayor Bloomberg and talking to the Governor, they've really been hit. But like always, the American people and the people of this country, but particularly the region have pulled together.

I want to tell you one of the most encouraging things that occurred. Every morning we talk -- but this morning -- with the governors and the mayors, the President on the phone and myself and the administration officials, and you know what I found most heartening, to hear immediately the day after the storm hit, hear Republican governors saying to Democratic governors and Democratic governors saying to Republican governors, look, if you need help, even though I'm hurt, let me send you some of what I have.

My governor of the state of Delaware, Markell, calling the governor of -- on the phone with the governor of New Jersey on these calls and saying, look, Gov, if we -- we have all this pre-positioned material. We weren't hit as bad as we thought we were going to be. Can we send stuff to you? Can we move? The mayors -- the mayor of New York City is one of the great mayors in this country in my view. He's an independent, but I think he's one of the great mayors in this country, Bloomberg. (Applause.) Talking with the mayor of Newark, New Jersey. So you know folks, it made me proud.

My mom, God love her, used to have an expression. She said, Joey, out of everything bad something good will come if you look hard enough.

And what came out of this -- what came out of this was -- this god-awful storm in the East -- was a cooperation like it used to exist when I first got involved in public life. It used to exist. (Applause.) No, really Democrats and Republicans working together. Didn't matter -- didn't matter what their politics were in the moment of crisis, just didn't matter, working together.

I spent most of my career as a United States senator being elected at 29 years old working with some great, great -- as many great Republicans as Democrats. People like Colin Powell, who's still a friend, former Secretary of State; Dick Lugar of Indiana; Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who by the way, today has gotten on a plane -- I spoke to him this morning -- flying to Nebraska to help Bob Kerrey, help Bob Kerrey win in Nebraska. (Applause.)

But guys that I still keep contact with like Bob Dole and Alan Simpson, partisans, tough guys -- tough guys -- but never, ever, ever put their own personal well-being or the country's well-being behind their politics. And so, folks, we got to get to back to that. We got to get back to that because when this election is over we have so many -- (applause) -- so many gigantic opportunities, not just problems, so many incredible opportunities in the nation that if we start working together again, imagine -- just imagine what we can do as a nation.

And the American people -- the American people now have an opportunity to choose clearly what direction they want this country to go in because the differences between us are stark.

Let me start off and I'm not looking for boos or cheers, just to state a fact. I think Romney and Ryan are both decent, honorable men. I think they're obviously loving husbands and great fathers, but they have a fundamentally different view of America and how to lead it than we do, and a fundamentally different value set -- value set -- that props up those views.

If you saw the debates, though, the last one, you'd begin to wonder. (Applause.) That last debate -- that last debate between -- (Laughter.) Yes, I did have a debate with Congressman Ryan. (Laughter and applause.) Anyway, look, Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan, though, seem to be running away as rapidly as they can from everything they've said up to now. It must be a shock to the people that Governor Romney ran against in the primary to hear him talking now. I mean did you see that foreign policy debate? I didn't whether Romney was going to endorse Obama or debate him. (Laughter.) I mean I didn't know what was -- seriously, think about it. (Applause.)

I see a guy closer to my generation used to be -- there used to be a song back when we were in college, on the wings of a snow-white dove. I mean he came flying into that debate on the wings of a snow-white dove, man. (Laughter.) It was amazing.

He went from saying it was a tragic mistake for us to end the war in Iraq without leaving 30,000 combat troops there to sounding like he never supported the war in the beginning. It was amazing. He went from harshly criticizing the President for saying the United States would turn over full responsibility -- and we will -- full responsibility to the Afghan military and be out of there in 2014. (Applause.) He went from there -- he initially said, that timetable is a tragic mistake. But then if you noticed, when asked by my -- the moderator in my debate, when Ryan was asked, will you leave in 2014, he said, exactly what Romney said. He said, well, it depends. With these guys it always depends. (Laughter.) It depends on who they're talking to. It depends on the time of day. It depends on what the polls say. It depends on where they are. It depends on what they're feeling like. It just depends. (Applause.)

And now they're acting like the converted. I tell you what, my Grandpop Ambrose Finnegan used to have an expression. He said, Joey, beware of the converted. I tell you what, man -- (Laughter.) But on the issue, it's clear they're acting converted on foreign policy.

But on women's issues they can't even bring themselves to climb into the 21st century here. No, I'm serious. Think about it. Their positions are somewhat arcane to say the least. Their refusal to condemn the Indiana senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock tells you an awful lot about what they believe. You know that old expression, silence can be deafening? The silence is deafening. When Governor Romney was asked a direct question at the second debate, do you think women deserve equal pay for equal work, what did he do? He started talking about binders. (Laughter.) Seriously, not a joke. (Applause.) Binders. He found out in his binder there were qualified women in America. (Laughter.)

By the way, sir, welcome home, man. Vietnam, I tell you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)

But it's kind of amazing. I mean when you think about it to say that, I found a binder full of qualified women. (Laughter.)

Look, the other thing he pointed out, he said that -- if you notice he never did answer the question. He never answered the question on equal pay. But what he did say was -- his spokesman said that he would -- he wanted to repeal the law passed that prevents women from being able -- not being able to be charged 50 percent more for insurance, health insurance. We passed a law saying you can't charge women more than men for the same insurance. We passed a law saying -- ladies, this will come as a shock to you -- pregnancy is not a preexisting condition. (Laughter.) But by the way, it is now. Go try and get an insurance policy before the law kicks in if you're pregnant. They want to move that back. He went so far as to say he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, and maybe the most important unspoken issue in this whole campaign, which you could spend the whole day talking about, is just imagine -- just imagine what this election will do to the 40 years of hard-fought victories for women in America if Romney gets to appoint the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I'm telling you I'm being deadly earnest.

Just close your eyes and think about how close it is. Look at the split in the Court now. Next President is going to get at least one and could be as many as three new justices. Ladies and gentlemen, and that's the second most important decision a President makes other than going to war because guess what? It outlasts any presidential term.

Look, when it comes to women's rights, I want to make clear to all of you and to anybody who will listen to this that where Barack and I are, starting in our gut, moving to our heart and residing in our brain, is that our daughters and my granddaughters -- hear me -- are entitled to every single opportunity my sons and my grandsons are. Every single solitary one. (Applause.)

Folks, folks, in the final week of this campaign, it's not just their position on foreign policy they've attempted to rewrite or their position on women they're attempting to hide, they're now running away from the central tenets of this new Republican Party. There are two pillars upon which this new -- and I say new, I'm not being facetious. This is not your father's Republican Party. This is not the Republican Party of 10 and 15 and 20 years ago -- neither bad nor good -- but it is different.

They had two fundamental rationales for why they should occupy the White House. The first one is they have this $5 trillion tax cut. That was going to revive the economy, but all of a sudden, that $5 trillion tax cut, which all the experts point out will raise taxes $2,000 a year for a middle-class family with children, all of a sudden -- all of a sudden, it doesn't cost anything.

You heard Romney on the debates. You heard Ryan in the debates. No, this isn't going to cost anybody a cent. Why? They're going to close these loopholes for the wealthy. Point in fact, I won't bother you with the statistics, but every single loophole for the wealthy, of people making more than a million dollars, adds up to $54 billion a year. Cut them all out and you don't even get close to making up the $5 trillion.

So when asked -- when I turned and asked Congressman Ryan when he said this is going to cost nothing. I said, well, Congressman, name me one loophole you'd close. He couldn't name one. When he was on Fox Television being interviewed by Mr. Wallace, Wallace asked the same question. He said, the math is too complicated. It would take too long to explain. (Laughter.)

Romney, when asked, name me one loophole you'd close -- he can't. And he calls the President of the United States out of touch? This guy with the Swiss bank account, millions in the Cayman Islands, refused to release his income taxes, yet he required his running mate to release 10 years of his income taxes before he'd pick him.

Ladies and gentlemen, as the President said after the second debate, Romney's plans are sketchy -- sketchy. (Laughter.) Well, I don't like to -- and by the way, I just got off the -- literally off the phone with the President before I pulled up. He's on Air Force One, he wanted me to send his regards to all of you and thank you. (Applause.) But I usually don't correct the President in public, but I have to today. Romney's plans aren't sketchy. They're Etch-a-sketchy. (Laughter.) Everything about it is sort of Etch-a-sketchy. Let's erase everything we've said the last four years.

The other central premise beyond their tax policy, which they've run away from now, which they still believe, they've run away from is the Ryan House-passed Republican budget. Now, guys, you don't have to wonder what they'd do with their budget and how it affects the middle class. It already passed the Republican House of Representatives, stopped by Tom Harkins and others in the Senate. It already passed.

And, ladies and gentlemen, when Romney picked Ryan, he said one of the reasons he was picking him was because of the marvelous budget that he put together. And he said were he President at the time, he would sign it into law. That's the same budget The New York Times said when it passed -- said, "is the most extreme budget passed by a House of Congress in modern times."

Even Newt Gingrich who you've all got to know out here. (Laughter.) Even Newt Gingrich said, remember this? He called it "right-wing social engineering." Remember that? Now they're running away from that. Well, they can run, but they cannot hide. That budget they support turns Medicare from a guaranteed program to a voucher, which is going to cost seniors tens of thousands of dollars, according to every expert. They eviscerate education. They cut $5 billion a year out of elementary and secondary education. They kicked 200,000 kids out of early education. They cut Pell grants for working families and they eliminate the tax cut middle-class people use to help pay for their kids to be in college.

And now Ryan says his budget doesn't cut anything. That's what he says, he says it doesn't cut. He said it just slows. Tell that to all those folks on Medicare that are no longer going to be on Medicare in 10 years. Tell that to all those folks who have kids in preschool. Tell that to all those folks who have a kid in college that they'll barely be able to hang on to keep them there.

Look, Ryan saying that his budget doesn't cut, it just slows, is a little like Romney standing in an unemployment line and saying to the unemployed guy, look, I want to make it clear to you: I didn't outsource your job, I just off-shored your job. (Laughter and applause.)

Look, guys, these are tough words I'm about to say. These guys have become shameless in the last two weeks. All this budget, all these things done are done in the service of maintaining tax cuts for the very wealthiest among us. It cost over $2 trillion for people making over a million bucks the next 10 years.

Imagine what we could do to rebuild our infrastructure in this country with $2 trillion. Imagine what we could do to help families struggling to keep their kids in college. Imagine what we could do to pay down the debt. Imagine what we could do to shore up Medicare. Just imagine what we could do instead of another $2 trillion going to the wealthy.

And by the way, I come from a wealthy little state. We have the second highest per-capita income or the first depending on the year of any state in the nation. I learned in my career wealthy people are just as patriotic. They're just as good. They're just as noble as poor folks. They know they don't need another tax cut. They're not even asking for it. It's outrageous.

And look, folks, we've seen this movie before. We know how it ends. Last time it ended in 9 million lost jobs, $16 trillion in your personal wealth evaporated and the equity in your home evaporating, your 401(k)s going up in flames, your retirement plans being eviscerated. And it ended with the Great Recession of 2008. And the American people will not go back, and we're not going to let them go back. (Applause.)

But folks, in all my time involved in presidential politics, the most amazing thing I've seen are the two ads -- closing ads that Governor Romney is now running. I'm not sure which one is most outrageous. They're running in -- some of them in Iowa, a lot in Ohio, and in Michigan. Here's what the ads are. The first one ad is about China, you may have seen it here. He said he's going to get tough on China. He uses the -- to use President Clinton's phrase, who I've just been campaigning with, if he were here, he'd say that takes a lot of brass. (Laughter.) It takes a lot of -- Romney -- Romney get tough on China?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the same guy The Washington Post called the pioneer in outsourcing to China and other places; the same man who criticized our President for taking action in international court in the -- under the trade agreements, taking action against China -- against their flooding us with tires and not allowing tubular steel in, winning both cases, saving thousands of American jobs in the rubber or tire industry, and in the steel industry. (Applause.)

This guy is going to get tough on China is the same guy who has a significant portion -- at least a portion of his fortune invested in Chinese companies. This is the same guy who's calling for a new corporate tax called a territorial tax. If you didn't believe -- if you didn't know better, you'd think I was making this up. The territorial tax says, the Bain way, corporation, you want to build a corporation or build a product, you go to the country in the world that has the cheapest taxes, the lowest taxes, the lowest wages; build you company there. All you have to do is pay the tax in that country and you never have to pay a penny of American income tax or corporate tax.

Now, that will create, according to the experts, 800,000 new jobs, but all of them abroad. This is no joke. No joke. You remember at the convention Governor Romney said, the first thing I will do is I will take a jobs tour? (Laughter.) Well, it's going to have to be a foreign trip for him. (Laughter.) It's going to have to be a foreign trip. (Applause.) When you hear Mitt Romney say that he'd protect the American jobs by getting tough on China, I have one word for it: malarkey. (Laughter.) Malarkey. (Applause.)

Now, the other ad he's running is even more outrageous, and he's running it in states -- in the state -- not just in states, but in the markets, in Ohio, where the American people, the Buckeyes are just recovering from the devastation that occurred to the automobile industry, and they're coming back. They're running an ad that's saying President Obama put Chrysler into bankruptcy so that -- no, catch this -- so that you could sell -- so the Italians would buy Chrysler, and the Italians would ship -- I don't know he has against the Italians -- so the Italians would ship -- this is the ad -- ship those Jeep jobs, to construct those jobs of assembling the jeep, to China. That's what he said. It's an absolute lie.

The ad was so outrageous that PolitiFact -- I know they don't like fact-checking -- but PolitiFact called it, "wholly inaccurate." The Cleveland Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio said -- I'm quoting -- "it's a masterpiece of misdirection." The Toledo Blade said, "He plays up his Detroit roots, but Mr. Romney's own words make it clear he's no friend of the automobile industry." These are papers, not me saying this.

Even the auto companies, even the auto companies felt compelled to respond. When is the last time you remember a major American corporation within five days of a campaign publicly criticizing a Republican nominee? I don't ever remember. Maybe it happened, but I don't remember it. Here's what Chrysler said -- Chrysler said, "It is a leap that would be difficult even for a circus acrobat to make this judgment." (Laughter.) GM said -- here's what GM said -- they said, "They are living in a parallel universe" -- referring to Romney. And they called it -- which I think is critical -- they called it "campaign politics at its cynical worst." That's what GM said about a Republican candidate for President.

And I think the Denver Post editorial this morning said it best; it said, and I quote, "Beyond the ad's veracity is a question about character. In a place -- (applause) -- it went on. It went on. One of the toughest editorials I've ever read. It went on and said, "in a place like Ohio, where one in eight jobs are in the automobile industry, such a lie matters. It scares people. It makes them worry that the better economic times they're just beginning to see could dissolve before their eyes." And it goes on to say -- this is important, and this is what I think these guys are about -- "it bespeaks an indifference to the concerns of Ohio's working class. And that is just as revealing as backing an ad that leaves the wholly untruthful impression."

I've never heard something that strong. There probably have been, but I don't recall -- because, folks, this is a matter of character. Presidential elections come down to a matter of character. My mom used to say it slightly differently; she'd say, Joey, the measure of your character is not what you do when people are looking; it's what you do when no one is looking. That's the measure of character. (Applause.)

And I know the vast majority of you are supportive Democrats of our administration, but if you ever wondered -- some of you probably even wondered whether or not Governor Romney meant what he said when he thought no one was looking, when he said -- seriously -- when Governor Romney said that 47 percent of the American people, 47 percent, are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. One of most outrageous statements and characterizations of the American people that I have ever heard. And the worst part is he believes it; they believe it. If you listen and read some of the stuff that Congressman Ryan has written, he talks about America has -- youi've become of a culture of dependency; that the American people are victims, see themselves as victims.

Look, folks, elections are about character; presidential elections, character. Character is the most important ingredient a President must possess to lead a great nation. And it's clear to me who has it and who doesn't. Barack Obama has the character of his convictions. (Applause.) He does not engage in deception. He does not mislead. He says what he means; he means what he says. And no one can say that about Governor Romney. (Applause.)

So I'm confident the American people are asking themselves the question in these final days -- who can they trust? Who's leveling with them? Who will stand up for the middle class? In the last hours of this campaign, these guys have become truly desperate. Governor Romney will say virtually anything to win. As the Plain Deal put it, he'll do anything "no matter how much confusion he must sow to do it."

Folks, the President of this job is not to sow confusion but to plant the seeds of confidence and growth in the American people. (Applause.) And we have confidence in the American people, confidence in your grit, your determination. And we marvel, like you do, at how much responsibility average people take for their own lives; how so many people get up and put one foot in front of the other every day struggling just to make it. And we're determined -- we're absolutely determined the level the playing field and once again give them a fighting chance -- because whenever the middle class has had a fighting chance they have never, ever, ever let their country down. (Applause.)

Look, the entire history of the journey of this great country can be summarized up in one word: Forward! Always forward. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no quit in America. There never has been any quit in America. And I got news for these guys: Gentlemen, it's never, ever, ever been a good bet to bet against the American people. Never. (Applause.)

So, folks, we need you. Together, we can win Iowa. And if we win Iowa, we win this election. So go out there and get them out. (Applause.)

God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you all.

END 12:50 P.M. CDT