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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release October 17, 2012


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT

Island Grove Exhibit Hall
Greeley, Colorado


12:50 P.M. MDT


THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Greeley. (Applause.) How are you all? (Applause.) Good to see you.

Rhonda, thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so very much. Back in Delaware we have a rule, if you keep someone standing on concrete more than 20 minutes, you lose all their votes, so I'm starting off behind here. But I want to thank you all for being here, and I want to thank my good friend Ken Salazar.

I've served in the United States Senate prior to this job for a long time. I've gotten a chance to meet an awful lot of United States senators. And I can say without fear of contradiction that one of the finest people I have ever served with in the United States Senate was Ken Salazar. This man has got guts. This man has got a backbone. (Applause.)

And we've genuinely become friends. My son is the attorney general of the state of Delaware in no small part because of this man. My son, who is an Iraqi war veteran and a good guy, was asked to run for attorney general, and I told him no. He went and met Ken. He told him yes. And he's attorney general. (Laughter.)

But -- and Ken is always very gracious when it comes to me. Ken didn't -- a lot of people went through -- a lot of you have gone through tougher times than I've gone -- than I went through. But I had two things when I was going through my difficulties. I had a great family, and I had our Lady of Guadalupe. And I mean that sincerely. My mother -- it was always, the Blessed Mother. (Applause.)

And for me, I had a lot of help. I had a whole lot of help. And again, I just think when I -- these guys talk about the 47 percent and all that stuff. I just don't understand how they don't understand that there are so many hardworking, decent people -- get up every morning, just put one foot in front of the other; I mean just -- it's a chore just to put one foot in front of the other -- who don't have all the things I had when I hit a rough patch, or all the things a lot of other people have. And -- but that's the reason why Barack is running again. That's they reason why I'm proud to serve with them.

And speaking of proud to serve with, Michael -- Michael Bennet has more quiet grit and grace than about anybody I know. (Applause.)

We Irish have an expression, when you want to pay a man or a woman -- in this case a man -- the highest compliment you can, you look at them and say, you're a good man. And you are a good man. You have real integrity. (Applause.)

And where's our next congressman, Brandon Shaffer? I didn't get to see Brandon. Where are you, Brandon? Are you out there somewhere? Brandon was here I was told. I guess not. He's out working for the votes he doesn't have. (Laughter.) Well, I was told he might be here.

Folks, before I get started, let me remind you that mail-in ballots started being sent out a couple days ago, so go home and check your mailbox, and then go home and check off that ballot. Send it in. You have until October 30th to have a ballot sent to you if you want it, and early voting starts in Colorado on October 22nd. So don't wait until Election Day. Let's take this thing sooner than later, okay? (Applause.)

And as Ken said, how about Barack Obama last night? (Applause.) You all saw the man that I have sat with every day on average four to six hours a day, a man of principle, a man of gumption, a man with a steady hand and a clear vision. That's what America got to see last night, and I tell you, presumptuous of me to say it as Vice President, but I'm proud of him. I'm proud to serve him. (Applause.)

The President spoke about how we have -- the American people, not we -- the American people have clawed their way back from the mess they inherited four years ago and how the President and I intend to keep this momentum moving and lead this nation forward.

Governor Romney was a little -- how can I say it? Sketchy last night. (Laughter.) No details. No specifics. But, folks, that's not new. We've now had three debates. Governor Romney twice, Congressman Ryan once, and the answers were always the same. Maybe. It depends. We'll let you know after the election. Folks, these are the only guys I've ever heard out of any guys I've ever met who thought that not telling you now, but telling you after the election constituted leadership. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, let's look at some of what Governor Romney and the Congressman have laid out in their plans, what Governor Romney talked about last night. On taxes, we learned that Governor Romney suddenly doesn't have a $5 trillion tax cut. It's amazing. It's remarkable. As my -- one of my four granddaughters, my little seven-year-old said, did Casper the Ghost steal it? Where did it go? (Laughter.) Where did it go?

And the plan he does have, he won't tell you how he's going to pay for it. Well, there's a simple reason why he won't because if he told you, you wouldn't like it. That's why he's not telling you all. If he tells you, you're not going to like it because it raises your taxes $2,000 a year. No wonder when asked to name one single loophole he'd close -- because remember he's going to pay for all this by closing loopholes for the rich - when asked to pay -- name one single loophole, he couldn't name one.

When I asked the same thing to Congressman Ryan he said it's mathematically difficult or something to that effect. (Laughter.) Yo, so much for simplifying the tax code. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, but there is one thing they're sure about. There is one exception that is not going to be taken off the table, and that's the one that allows him to pay a 14 percent tax rate on 20 million bucks a year. They're keeping that one. They're keeping that one because -- because, as he said, it grows America. (Laughter.) As my brother would say, go figure. Go figure. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, but they also talk -- the only thing they still talk straight about on taxes is wanting to continue the tax cut for the wealthy, the so-called Bush tax cuts are due to expire in January. Well, it's pretty important that everybody knows the facts. I've been saying this for six months. The press doesn't dispute it. No one disputes it. Oh, if you continue that Bush tax cut, $800 billion -- now hear me, I'm not making this up -- $800 billion in tax cuts go to people who have a minimum of $1 million in income.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, look, I don't need your boos. We need your work here. But here we go. (Laughter.) But here's the incredible part to get you to know what these guys value and why we're so different. There are 120,000 families in America. That's the number --- 120,000 families in America -- if we continue that tax cut for the very wealthy who will get a half a trillion dollars in tax cuts. Now that -- all the press is up there. You know how these guys are smart, women are smart. They're going to fact-check. So check tomorrow. (Laughter.) A hundred and twenty-thousand families continue to get over the next 10 years a half a trillion dollars in tax cuts.

The Governor and the Congressman feel so strongly about those 120,000 families that they go out there, and they have to cut all of the things that make middle-class families more probable, make life more livable -- from college tuition tax credits to childcare, all these things.

And unless you hear it, unless you look at it, it's hard to believe anybody would actually have that set of priorities. And, ladies and gentlemen, here's the kicker, as the Senator can tell you: They -- the Democratic Senate passed legislation saying we want to make the middle-class tax cut permanent. And they said no. And here's how they can do it mechanically. They said, we will not allow you to vote in the House of Representatives on cutting taxes of the middle class unless you include that half-a-trillion dollars for 120,000 families. I mean, this is literal. Literal. All they have to do, as I said to Congressman Ryan, just step out of the way. Have a vote on the middle class and have a vote on that tax cut.

They say they want -- that the people know. They won't even allow that. And if that middle-class tax cut is not continued, if you and your -- if you're a fireman or a teacher, and you're making $90,000 a year, or you're a farmer making $40,000 or $50,000 or $70,000 a year, the combination -- whatever the combination is, you're going to pay another $2,000 to $4,000 in taxes next year if they don't allow us to continue that tax cut for the middle class.

And now, I found it amazing -- remember at their convention, it was like they went out and all of a sudden they discovered the middle class. It was like, whoa. (Laughter.) There is a middle class. You didn't hear them talk about the middle class at all prior to that practically. And all of a sudden, eureka, it's there -- the middle class. (Laughter.) I heard them talk so much the last month about the middle class, it astounded me. And they tell you how much they value the middle class.

Well, my dad had an expression, like my good friend's dad had an expression. Ken, my dad used to say, when someone would tell him -- his name was Joe -- Joe, let me tell you what I value. My dad, I swear to God, would look at him and say, Charlie, don't tell me what you value; show me your budget and I will tell you what you value. Show me your budget, I will tell you what you value. (Applause.)

So it's kind of fair to look at the Romney-Ryan budget. And you say, Joe, how can you talk about the Ryan-Romney budget? We don't know what -- we do know what it is. They're already passed it in the House of Representatives. Every Republican but I think four voted for it. Fortunately the Senate stopped it. Let me tell you what that Romney-Ryan -- and Romney said he endorses it.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, they're now walking away from that budget. Speaking of sketchy, not only did the $5 trillion tax cut evaporate -- not going to be that much -- all of a sudden, what they already voted for and passed in the United States Congress has evaporated. Their budget -- and there's a reason why. It slashes 19 million people off of Medicaid; turns Medicare into a voucher system; decimates education; eliminates the $2,500 tax credit for families struggling to keep their kids in school; cuts Pell grants.

And the kicker of all kickers, these guys never get -- their appetite is voracious. They then, in addition to that, say, we also want to reinstate a $60 billion subsidy to banks to let them reprocess these loans again, which are federally guaranteed.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: But I could go on. But this is real. I mean, if it weren't so tragic it would almost be funny.

Romney's foreign policy is also no surprise coming from a man who when asked, what is the greatest threat to -- geopolitical threat to the United States, he said the Soviet Union -- Russia. (Laughter.) And his staff keeps using the word Soviet Union. Whoa. (Laughter.) These guys are kind of in a time warp. (Laughter.) He said it was a mistake. (Applause.) This is the same man who said it was a mistake to leave Iraq -- we should have left 30,000 combat troops there. He criticized the President for saying that along with our 49 other allies, we're ending the war in Afghanistan in 2014 -- and we are ending the war in Afghanistan, period. (Applause.) At first criticized this, then he said he supports it.

When asked, will you guarantee you'll end it, he said, "it depends." (Laughter.) That's what he said, "it depends" on conditions on the ground.

And maybe the place where Romney was least responsive and most sketchy and where we have the most basic disagreement with him is on women's rights. Barack Obama and I -- I want to make this clear so there's no misunderstanding anybody here. I've got a daughter, lost a daughter, have four granddaughters, and Barack has two daughters. We are absolutely -- this is to our core. My daughter and my granddaughters and Barack's daughters are entitled to every single, solitary operation, every single, solitary opportunity, every single, solitary thing my sons are and my grandsons are, without exception -- every single thing. (Applause.) And that's in the gut.

You heard the debate last night. When Governor Romney was asked a direct question about equal pay, he started talking about binders. (Laughter.) Whoa. The idea he had to go and ask where a qualified woman was -- he just should have come to my house. (Laughter.) He didn't need a binder. He didn't need a binder. (Applause.)

But I mean it. And on equal pay, he didn't even answer the question. He didn't answer the question. And a senior adviser said last night in -- they call it the Spin Room -- when Romney was asked about -- when they were asked about, did Romney support Lilly Ledbetter, which is just basic, minimal justice, he said -- Romney would have vetoed it.

Ladies and gentlemen, on women's -- sketchy -- well, that's the only place they ain't so sketchy. On women's health, they want to turn power back to the insurance companies, allow them to charge 50 percent more for the same coverage on average as they charge women for the same coverage. Until we pass this law -- if we don't -- if it doesn't come into full effect, pregnancy with many insurance companies is a preexisting condition, literally. Not a joke. And for good measure, Romney said on multiple occasions that he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood.

Look, talk about being out of touch. It's not just the Swiss bank accounts and the Cayman Islands. No, it really isn't. It's more than that. That I understand him doing. I can't understand someone running for President doing it, but I can understand him doing it. (Laughter.) But what I can't understand is how he has gotten in this sort of 1950s time warp in terms of women.

Let me tell you one other area where he's way out of touch -- way out of touch when it comes, as Ken said, to immigration. He's not only out of touch with the Hispanic community, and this is a point -- a message I want to deliver to all you folks in Colorado, he's out of touch with the American people. He's not just out of -- no, on immigration, all Americans who are not Hispanic or Latino may not know the numbers, but they know what's happening: 16.5 percent of all the kids on a college campus today are Hispanic. (Applause.) Over 25 percent of all public school children in K through 12 are Hispanic. (Applause.) And the American people see what Barack and I see, what you see. They see nothing but promise in that, nothing but promise. (Applause.)

And I'm not only proud of Barack stepping up when the Congress wouldn't, when the House wouldn't let him step up, of moving on the DREAMers, I'm proud of the American people who overwhelmingly -- over 67 percent -- when the President acted, they immediately said, Mr. President, that is the right thing to do. (Applause.)

So, folks, it's not just -- they supported the action taken by the President to lift the cloud of deportation off a million kids who were brought here, as if they're going to say at two years old, Mom, I don't want to cross that border. (Laughter.) Leave me behind, Mom, that's what I want to do. (Laughter.) And now these guys are talking about these bright, young kids and you're going to send them home? Home? Home? This is home. This is home. America is home. (Applause.) They didn't choose to come here, but they chose to do right by America and the President believes it's time to do right by them. (Applause.)

And, ladies and gentlemen, but not Governor Romney -- he spoke out against the action taken by the President. He said he would have vetoed the DREAM Act had it been passed. And literally, it's almost unbelievable his answer, self-deportation. I don't know where he lives. (Laughter.) I really mean it. I mean, I don't care what your position is on immigration -- self-deportation? Whoa, every 13-year-old get up and move, man. (Laughter and applause.)

Look, as I've been saying for some time now, this is the --literally the starkest choice for President in my memory, because Barack and I have a fundamentally different vision, a fundamentally different value set than Congressman Ryan and the Governor. They're good, decent men. I really mean this now. They're loving parents. They're great husbands. They seem -- they're good, decent men. But they have such a fundamentally different view of the country than we do.

We have a very different way forward. We have a plan. First, on taxes, we already cut taxes for the middle class by $3,600. We've cut taxes more than a dozen times for small businesses. We're going to keep insisting on keeping the tuition tax credit, continuing the child care tax credit for working families. And we're going to make permanent the middle class tax cut.

Second, we have a plan to create a million new manufacturing jobs and help businesses double their exports. How? Give tax breaks to companies that invest in America, not those who go abroad -- (applause) -- and not continue -- I want your children to hear the word insourcing as much as we heard the word outsourcing. (Applause.) We have the most productive workforce in the world.

And Governor Romney, as the Post said, a pioneer in outsourcing. Governor Romney, last night you heard wants to double down. He wants to have a territorial tax, which simply means if you're a company -- find the country with not only the lowest wages, that's the Bain way -- find the country with the lowest tax rate. Go build your company there. Make all your profits there and you can bring them home. But you're sure not going to ever invest them here, because people actually pay taxes here. You're going to continue to invest them overseas. And the experts point out that would create 800,000 jobs, literally all of them overseas.

The third thing we're going to do is we're going to continue the downward trend of oil imports, cut imports in half and produce more American-made energy -- oil, clean coal, natural gas, new resources like wind and solar and biofuel. (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, and what still baffles me even though the automobile companies support it these guys are still against mileage standards for automobiles. We doubled the mileage requirement for automobiles by the year 2024, which will save $1.7 trillion for you at the gas pump and 12 billion barrels of oil. Conservation has to be part of this. (Applause.) But, ladies and gentlemen, they opposed it.

Fourth, ensure that we maintain the best workforce in the world. How? We'll recruit and train 100,000 new math and science teachers, train 2 million Americans with the job skills they need in the next three years at our community colleges. (Applause.) Six hundred thousand of those high-tech manufacturing jobs already exist, they're just looking for skilled personnel. Cut the growth of tuition in half and expand student aid, so more kids can afford to get to college. (Applause.)

And fifth, with a balanced plan, reduce our deficit by $4 trillion -- we've already cut $1 trillion off the long-term debt, and on top of that $3 trillion more can be cut. We've laid out exactly how. But what bothers these guys -- they talk about the debt, it amazes me. They put that debt clock up there and they talk about the moral responsibility. Well, the Congressman didn't have any trouble with the moral responsibility when he put two wars on a credit card -- (applause) -- when he put a prescription drug benefit on a credit card and a trillion-dollar tax cut for the wealthy on a credit card. Mitt had no problem with that.

Now, all of a sudden they're seized with a moral obligation. (Laughter.) Well, let me tell you something -- Senator Bennet can tell you, because he and I have been involved in this. We laid out a plan how to cut the deficit. They will not support any plan at all to cut the deficit if it requires literally one red cent in new revenue from people making more a million bucks -- not one. You heard Romney asked in the first debate, would you support cutting the deficit if it required any new revenues? The answer was no.

Ladies and gentlemen, these guys aren't serious. These guys aren't serious. And as -- when it comes -- as we end the war in Afghanistan, we're going to bring home instead of spending another $830 billion in the next 10 years, we're going to bring that -- end that war, bring that money home and begin to rebuild America, rebuild American roads, American schools, American jobs, rebuild America. (Applause.)

Look, folks, this is all about expanding the middle class. It's all about not just keeping the middle class, but expanding it. When the middle class does well, everybody does well. We create more millionaires, we give people the ladder up and people in the middle can actually do what drives this economy, have enough disposable income to go out and buy things people make, growing this economy. They are the job creators. The middle class create those jobs. (Applause.)

But ultimately, it's about as my dad would say, giving peace of mind, just peace of mind to ordinary, hardworking Americans -- peace of mind to these families who as been pointed out, been crushed by the recession of 2008. The Romney-Ryan plan is all about going back to the future. Romney said the first thing he would do eliminate those regulations on Wall Street and banks. Let them go back to writing the rules. His massive tax plan, which if you add it all up, is well over $5 trillion.

Folks, we've seen this movie before. (Laughter.) We've seen it before. There is nothing new about it. This is exactly what was done in the previous eight years. It produced the slowest private job growth since World War II, doubled our national debt in eight years and created a depression almost, but a depression for many and an awful recession which stripped middle-class families of a total of $16 trillion.

How many of you know somebody who a neighbor went into foreclosure and all of a sudden you found your house on the block was underwater? Fourteen million people never missed a mortgage payment -- they won't even let us allow them to go out and refinance, no cost to the taxpayer, by asking a little more of the banks we've bailed out.

Just look how differently they look at America than we do. They look at the American people differently. Romney and Ryan see it in terms of -- as Ryan said in a speech he recently made -- that there are makers and there are takers in America. Romney said in the famous 47 percent comment -- it was the most astounding thing I've heard in my career. No, I really mean it, because they really believe it. They really believe it. He said 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take personal responsibility for their own lives.

And then, he went on to say, it's not my job to worry about them. Ladies and gentlemen, those people -- (applause) -- that 47 percent and more -- should worry about Romney, because he doesn't have any idea who they are. They were my mom and dad who worked like the devil their entire life. They're the millions of people who are working today, paying their payroll taxes and other taxes at a higher effective rate than Romney pays in federal tax rate.

They're the elderly, who worked their whole life to get Social Security. And now, if they're under a certain income, which the vast majority are and living off of Social Security, they don't have to pay income tax. They're takers? They are the 68,000 warriors that I've gone to visit multiple times in Afghanistan who are marching through those god-awful mountains now and not having to pay any income tax on their military pay.

Ladies and gentlemen, the contribution any one of those soldiers makes is so much greater than -- well, it's so much greater. It's so much greater. (Applause.) And the American people are so much better. They're so much stronger. They take so much more responsibility than these guys even begin to understand.

I've never seen two candidates for the two highest public offices in the land more negative about the state of the country, the prospects for the future and the determination of the American people. They talk about this culture of dependency. They talk about American in decline. I give you my word as a Biden, I don't recognize the country they're talking about. I don't know where they are, where they've been. I really mean this, I don't recognize it.

Folks, Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan are dead wrong. America is neither dependent, nor are we in decline. And I've got news for those gentlemen: It has never, never, never been a good bet to bet against the American people. Never. (Applause.)

So, folks, we need you because together we can win Colorado. And we win Colorado, we win this election. (Applause.) So let's go. Let's stand up. We're going to win. (Applause.) Let's move forward.

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

END 1:23 P.M. MDT