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Subscribe to RSSIn Charlotte, Democrats are poised to insist that their economic vision is better for America than that outlined by Mitt Romney; they insist the country is better off than it was four years ago. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
DETROIT -- Amid a GOP-driven effort asking whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago, Vice President Joe Biden emphatically declared that "America is better off" now than at the end of the Bush administration.
"Folks, let me say something to you, say it to the press," Biden said at the conclusion of his remarks at a Labor Day rally here in the Motor City. "America is better off today than they left us when they left!"
The question, a staple of elections in which an incumbent is seeking re-election, has developed into a small media imbroglio since surrogates for President Barack Obama appeared hesitant this weekend to give a positive answer.
Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley answered that question with a "no"; Obama advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe offered nuanced responses but not a flat "yes."
Republicans pounced in the meanwhile, and the GOP held a press conference today in Charlotte, the site of the Democratic National Convention, to push that very question.
Biden's statement makes him the highest-ranking Obama surrogate to weigh in on the back and forth.
Repeating his frequent "bumper sticker" mantra, Biden said in Detroit: "If you want to know whether we're better off, I got a bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!"
Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in response: "Today, Vice President Biden claimed that Americans are better off than they were four years ago, directly contradicting what President Obama and his campaign surrogates have said. The truth is that the middle class has been crushed in the Obama economy."
Biden, who spoke to several hundred supporters at the AFL-CIO-sponsored event, focused heavily on labor issues in his remarks and blasted Romney for opposing the Obama-backed bailout of the auto industry.
"Folks, you can't say you're going to create jobs in the United States of America when you were willing to let 1m jobs go under by the liquidation of the automobile plants he suggested," Biden said.
He also went after Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, repeating a line first debuted yesterday in Pennsylvania to attack the Wisconsin congressman's Medicare plans.
"We're talking about making sure to protect Medicare. They're talking about creating an entire new system, 'Vouchercare,'" he said, warning "if they win, people are in trouble."
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Imagine what those men that left there families to fight the British would think of Obamas America. They fought against intrusive government, and higher Taxes. Imagine if King George wanted to send over Thousands of IRS Agents to enforce his laws.
TO: jack102 who wrote:
If Republicans get in your taxes are going up no matter what you say here today, and Rich Corporations and Rich People's taxes will go down (if it's even possible to pay less than zero).
Since when did we, the American People, enjoy "less government" as a result of a Republican being in the White House?
NEVER IN OUR LIFETIME!
Republicans are just desperate to do damage to themselves and others.
Obama/Biden 2012
GM Bail out - If Biden and Obama actually had any experience in the business world, they would have known that GM could have restructured after Bankruptcy and the 1M jobs would not have gone under like Biden falsely claims. Big corporations do it quite often.
On the flipside, Obama/Biden liquidated GM off to their crony unions buddies to help fill their own political favor buckets. In that regard, they spun the GM bail out very nicely to help themselves politically. But was that unneeded move really in all American's best interest? NOPE. Surely Biden mispoke again. America is not better off, but the Unions he was speaking to sure are thanks to short-selling our largest American company to them.
If you like being fooled by smoke and mirrors and get rich quick schemes you see on late night TV, then vote Obama/Biden 2012.
Im having so much fun reading all these comments! This has got to be the most conservative Ive seen a MSN site EVER! Love it......anywho......Biden is a racist dork and I cant wait to see him get his panties in a twist in the upcoming debate he will have with Ryan. Ryan is going to outsmart Biden before they even enter the debate hall. Biden will be busy looking for his script and forget he needs to be on stage, after all you cant trust Biden to just talk off the cuff........how embarrassing!
GM survived and Obama's Wall Street buddies made a killing in the IPO. The American taxpayer paid for all of this, which included suppliers being bankrupted to save GM and the American taxpayer now owns a lot of GM stock worth very little. GM was saved shows that Obama could give a damn for any npn-union worker, despite the fact we're 90% of the workforce. GM was run poorly and should have been allowed to fail. So Obama got Bin Laden and kept Gitmo open. George Bush in black face leaps to mind.
SOoooooooo,,,,,,,,,,Join a Union, Or, Maybe your to lazy to learn
a decent trade and constantly improve on the skills your taught?
Of course we're better off than we were four years ago. Do we remember how George Bush couldn't wait to get his butt out of Washington?
GM is alive. Osama Bin Laden is dead. We were at 10% unemployment, we're now at 8%. Is the stock market crashing? No. Are we losing tens of thousands of jobs every day? No.
It's a silly question.
Look, if you want to go back to the day before George Bush left office then by all means vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
Democrat President Bill Clinton created MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of jobs, AND Democrat President Bill Clinton was THE best President of modern times.
BUT, even Bill Clinton created those millions of jobs IN HIS SECOND TERM!
Obama/Biden 2012
Don't get ahead of yourselves. Presidents alone don't outright create jobs. Economic history shows cycles of about decade of momentum usually has to build up from many different aspects of the economy to drive businesses to create millions of jobs. Clinton had the benefit a technology boom and also took the brakes off of regulation of the shell companies in the dot.com boom and of the "affordable housing act" boom, which both then blew up in Bush's face! Then we blamed Bush for those failures. LOL. It's all contingent on if the President helps guide a peaceful, good business environment nationally and globally for US businesses to succeed in for at 6 or more years straight.
Democrats are MUCH better off, They went from losing 750,000 jobs per month during Bush's last few months to over 4 million jobs created, Over 30 straight months of job growth according to the CBO, The DOW has clumb from 7000 to over 13,000 along with over 30 straight months of economic growth, As Biden said, GM is alive (and now #1 in the World) and Bin Laden is dead
Republicans have not fared quite so well, They have collectively LOST several billion IQ points and have nothing to live on except the lies their leaders are feeding them a steady diet of
Bo, (Isn't that Oblamo's dog?) the name fits. What I wanted to say though, is, A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
BTW Republicans COULD lose a couple of billion I.Q. points and still be twice as smart as Demoncrats.
Wars create jobs. Pensions, Medicare and medicaide bleed money and without a product to sell. Clinton left office with 1.6 Trillion added to the National Debt! Bush allow medicaide to expand and spent on two wars! Obama Spent on the wars and did not address the bleeding entitlements! WE NEED TO PUT ALL THE PRESIDENTS IN FRONT OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC AND EXPLAIN HOW NO ONE WAS WILLING TO FACE THE BUDGET PROBLEM! WHAT IS SPENT NEXT YEAR WILL BE MUCH MORE THAN LAST. BUDGET WHAT WE CAN AFFORD AND CUT BACK GIVING MONEY THAT WE DON"T HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BUYING VOTES HAS CHANGED ELECTION RESULTS, BUT SOON THOSE PROGRAMS WILL DESTROY OUR GREAT COUNTRY!
Osama is dead and GM is alive. But let's look behind that curtain shall we? There is only one reason Osama is dead and that is President Bush who pushed for equipment and technology the dems voted against.
Drones - Senator Obama voted NO. Those stealthy copters - Senator Obama voted NO. The base from which those copters were launched - Senator Obama voted NO. The night vision technology - Senator Obama voted NO.
So I am thankful that President Obama's no votes were defeated and that Bush got the equipment used by Obama to kill Osama.
As for GM. The taxpayers shares are worth less than half then what they were when money was given. GM quietly posted a loss for the last quarter. GM is going broke again and will likely come hat in hand again for more money to waste.
GM may be alive but it's on life support and it's our blood sucking down the drain as they continue a bad business model. How much longer until the DR declares the patient is dead?
In America you sink or swim in business. If you're lucky some private investor may see the good in your business and try to save it.
NO where in the constitution does it say the government has the right to step in and spend the peoples money on the Presidents friends.
Barack Obama saved GM.
Barack Obama killed Osama Bin Laden.
Folks, no matter how much the Obama haters wish to change facts, they can't. Sure, like the poster above they can flat out lie, but big deal, little kids do that all the time.
Barack Obama in 2012, the man who saved GM and killed Osama Bin Laden.
Mitt Romney said he'd let GM die, while George Bush said he never really thought about Osama Bin Laden. Good thing we have a president who disagreed with both of them.
If I was to buy a Chevy it would be a 2009 or older.
What else would you expect this moronic idiot to say. My god liberals act as if stupidity is a virtue.
GOD BLESS THE SSA (Socialist States of America)
012 Democrat National Convention Schedule in little Charlotte,N.C. (Joe Biden thinks it is
in Virginia)
4:00 PM - Opening Flag Burning Ceremony - sponsored by NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC Michelle Obama's poem "All this for a flag".
4:05 PM - Singing of "God Damn America" led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
4:10 PM - Pledge of Allegiance to Obama.Left hand on chest.
4:15 PM - Ceremonial 'I hate America' led by Michelle Obama.
4:30 PM - Tips on "How to keep your man trustworthy & true to you while you travel the world" - Hillary Clinton
4:45 PM -Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson seminar "How to have a successful career without having a job."
5:00 PM - "Great Vacations I've Taken on the Taxpayer's Dime Travel Log" - Michelle Obama.
5:30 PM - Eliot Spitzer Speaks on "Family Values" via Satellite.
5:45 PM - Tribute to All 57 States - Nancy Pelosi
6:00 PM - Sen. Harry Reid - 30-minute speech expressing the Democrat's appreciation of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and George Soros for sparing no expense, for all that they have accomplished to unify the country, improve employment and Romney’s Tax returns to boost the economy.
6:30 PM - Ethics in Politics - Nancy Pelosi
6:35 PM - How to blame some one else for your own incompetence - Obama
7:00 PM - Tribute to Kenya, Barack's home country - Michelle Obama (she said it herself)
7:15 PM - My Muslim Faith - Obama (he said it himself)
7:30 PM - How to get your birth control paid for by the taxpayers - Sandra Fluck
8:00 PM - How to speak with and Indian dialect when visiting a 7/11 - Joe Biden
8:30 PM - Airing of Grievances by both Clintons.
9:00 PM - "Bias in Media - How we can make it work for you" Tutorial - sponsored by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times.
9:15 PM - Tribute Film to Brave Freedom Fighters incarcerated at GITMO - Michael Moore.
9:45 PM - Personal Finance Seminar - Charlie Rangel.
10:00 PM - Denunciation of Bitter Gun Owners and Bible readers.
10:15 PM- How to cheat on your taxes and still serve in government - Tim Geithner.
10:30 PM – Ceremonial Waving of White Flag for IRAQ & Afghanistan.
11:00 PM - Obama Energy Plan Symposium / Tire Gauge Demonstration / You too can get rich with Green Investment bankruptcies.
11:15 PM - Free Gov. Blagovich rally.
11:30 PM - Obama Accepts Oscar, Tony and Latin Grammy Awards
11:45 PM - Feeding of the Delegates with 5 Loaves and 2 Fish… Obama Presiding.
12:00 AM - Official Nomination of Obama by Bill Maher and Chris "He sends a thrill up my leg" Matthews.
12:01 AM - Obama Accepts Nomination as Lord and Savior.
12:05 AM - Celestial Choirs Sing
And on the first Tuesday in November, President Barack Obama accepts victory for his second term as president.
Not sure exactly what time that will be, but well before midnight I'm sure.
gringo- only on this site do we still debate the shape of the earth- flat or round.
why would a socialist pick Geitner and recapitalizes the banks instead of nationalizing the banks when they were flat broke and dead in the water?
If you dont understand the terms dont call the names
Ooops, somebody let ol' crazy uncle Joe out again!
I also would like to know what part of america is better off. We now send more money overseas than ever before. I think the only ones better off are biden reid pelosi hussein. No jobs available anywhere, banks won't loan money until they see if this idiot is elected again. Corporations are sitting on their money waiting for this loser to leave. They have no clue what hussein is up to. So they are waiting to see if they start up here or have it built in china. Get the chicago gangsters a new home in leavenworth.