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Subscribe to RSSBOCA RATON, Fla. -- Courting the over-65 set in retiree-rich southern Florida Friday, Vice President Joe Biden accused the GOP presidential ticket of planning to poach the Medicare and Social Security tax benefits of the middle class to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
"If Governor Romney’s plan goes into effect, it could mean that everyone, everyone of you, would be paying more taxes on your Social Security," Biden told hundreds of retirees at the Century Village community in Boca Raton. "The average senior would have to pay $460 a year more in taxes for their Social Security."
The Obama campaign traces that math to the claim that Romney's tax policy would necessarily require the elimination of some middle-class tax deductions. Using data from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, they determine that Romney would have to cut tax benefits for those earning under $200,000 by 58 percent. Spreading those cuts evenly across all benefits would work out to an average of $460 per year per senior.
But Team Romney counters that those numbers are based on a third party's assessment that's riddled with uncertainties and assumptions rather than Romney's actual plan, which the campaign promises on its website "will not raise [Social Security] taxes and will not affect today's seniors or those nearing retirement."
Republicans also point out that Biden himself voted for a 1993 measure that expanded the taxable portion of Social Security benefits for many low-income seniors.
In Florida Friday, Biden said Romney's tax plan was not "moral" because of what he claims would be unfair hikes on the middle class.
"How can you justify a middle class that has been clobbered by the policies that brought on this great recession, adding taxes to them and drastically cutting taxes for the very wealthy," he told a group made up mostly of seniors in Tamarac. "It's not right, I don't even think it's moral, and beyond that it will not help the economy, it will hurt the economy."
In slamming the GOP ticket, Biden also joked that he can't determine if Romney would actually roll back the Obama-backed health care plan after Romney's on-again off-again embrace of some of its core tenets.
"He said 'well, we’re going to maybe ... do that, but I’d like to keep a lot of the good stuff,' and then his campaign says, 'no no no, he didn’t mean that,' " Biden said.
The vice president, who also won laughs from the elderly crowds for jokes about his age and a Lawrence Welk shout-out that would have sailed over the heads of a younger audience, was warmly received at his campaign events. But he did face persistent questioning on the Obama administration's health care plan when he stopped at Nestor's, a Jewish deli in Boca Raton.
Steve Grossman, a 39-year-old who said he worked in the financial services industry, approached Biden as he sat down to order a tuna salad platter and began asking about health insurance costs. The vice president initially seemed reluctant to answer, cutting Grossman off to order his food and to chat with another patron's husband on the phone, but he ended up offering a description of state-based health care exchanges more fitting for a think tank roundtable than a deli specializing in "the mother of all Pastrami sandwiches."
"You can get more benefits for less money," he told Grossman in between slurps of chicken soup. "You get to choose among those insurance companies that are competing as part of the exchanges."
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Suzi Saul- So tell us how President Obama supported Muslims rioting? hmmmm? Please turn off fox news, you just sound silly!
O&JOE
she is a cookin upa sumpton
Tea party has been a Cancer for america
Quantum leap.I bet Romney wish he could do just that
Biden can't count to 65. Why doesn't this man just GO BACK TO SLEEP. He's an embarassment to the Democratic Party. I doubt he's had an original idea in his life.
yep we could call the 999 man out right?
better yet Palin..she speaks and the dumb listen
Biden he has been an embarrassment for us Democrats..hahahahahah...Bauchmann...Palin....999........big Tex from Texas..I better stop
Frank, Dodd, Biden, Clinton....I better stop.
ONER, Yea, Clinton a huge embarrassment. That's why he's far and awar the most popular ex president we have and same goes for Hillary. 8 years your party spent attempting to destroy the Clintons and what did it get you low lifes??? The Clintons are now beloved and revered around the world. Your boy Dubya is hiding out in seclusion somewhere cause not even his own party wanted to see him at the convention.
But GWB is coming out of seclusion to give the keynote address at an investment symposium in - are you ready? - the Cayman Islands! the week before the election! Can't make this stuff up!!!
Rombot is nuttier than a port-a-potty at a peanut festival.
Paul Ryan has sat in the budget committee and he has been cutting the funding for the health care; however, the GOP-led Congress has allowed the cost of the health care rising again, which it has been risen double each decade.
Romney/Ryan's health care plan for the senior is just continually to rise; but they never consider to raise the tax for the rich; no, it is not any moment that is in their minds to think to raise the tax for the rich. And all these times, the GOP presidential nominees are just thinking about to raise the bills and taxes for the middle and poor classes, including the senior citizens.
See if they would come up a plan to control and to cut the cost of the giant health care industry.
Billie,
You do know that Congress is made up of two parts the House which is controlled by the Republicans for two years and the Senate which has been under Democratic control for at least 6 years. Why do you blame everything on the Republicans?
They have stated over and over that there is no plan to raise any taxes on anybody over 55. Please do some research besides Democratic talking points that are false.
jerry becauseit is what it is...can you see the jobs they have said thy would create??......Tea Party Congress are just a bunch of dummies
Elvis,
Hasn't the President been claiming that there has been 4 million jobs created in the last two years since the Republicans took the House? How many more did you expect them to create?
No party controls the Senate and none will until the unlimited time rule for debate is changed - aka filibuster.
Akin.yes people this is the mind set of the whole tea party..they pretend to run from him
Ryan and Romney are not tea party. AKin is a fruitloop weirdo. They are all old republican money raisin the big dough. If they were true tea party - medicare and defense and everything else in the budget would be gutted. The us spends about 1 trillion per year to much. It will end badly with an interest rate spike or we will inflate our way out of it. Doesnt' matter. Stay in hard assets and us gold as a hedge. IN about 4-6 years unemployment wil be down to about 3-4 % cause the baby boomers will have retired. We will hit 20 trillion in debt and then things will get very interesting. Everyone will get to find out what cliff we are really on.
Fox news lets blame the news for this....yes look in the mirror
vote for us we want to change the constition of the USA...you do..nah we want to put it back like it was before??????tea party mind..bug on a wind shield
Elvis, all you want is to spend the us over a cliff so we turn into greece. You don't have to worry. Obama will make it happen!
Hey, how about we outlaw going to war without having the money to pay for it? Novel idea I know, but borrowing from India and China hasn't seemed to work out too well.
Trivia Question: China and India didn't loan us funds for WWII, so where did all that money come from? (a) Top personal income tax rate of 91% in 1944, and (b) War Bonds purchased by patriotic Americans. Think the Koch brothers or Romney would buy US bonds when a much better return was available just about anywhere else? Nope.
Romney's gonna help me park my yacht, like he did for the Marriott hotel dude.
Awesome. Now all I need is a yacht....
"Joe Biden accused the GOP presidential ticket of planning to poach the Medicare and Social Security tax"
Kind of like when the democrats stole 716 Billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare and the IRS agents needed as enforcers.
Ryan wants that same amount - $716 billion - to 'reimburse' the health care industry. Obama wants that money - which would come FROM the health care industry in the form of reduced payments - for preventative health care such as mammograms, vaccinations and other procedures to reduce the need for more expensive health services.
And, as usual, BIden runs off at the mouth without checking on what his own party and administration have done to Medicare. First of all, what about the vast amount of money that Obama pulled from Medicare to fund Obamacare? Seniors will have to make that up. Next, one of the "cost-cutting" measures in Obamacare is to pay doctors and hospitals less for the procedures they perform. Seniors are going to have to make that up, too. So, the end result of both of these actions on the part of the Obama/Biden administration is that seniors will have greater out-of-pocket expenses for the same medical care they are currently receiving, or, if they are fortunate enough to be able to afford supplemental healthcare insurance over and above Medicare, will have to pay increased premiums for that insurance to cover the Obamacare reductions in Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals.
Another thing - check back to see which political party decided to tax Social Security payments. I'll give you a clue - it WAS NOT the Republican party!
Biden is a menace to intelligent thought - every time he opens his mouth, either flat out untruths come out, or, stupidity comes out. The man needs to be locked away somewhere in a soundproofed room.
Remember in November!
Obama and Ryan both want $716 billion. Ryan wants it from Medicare to reimburse health insurers. Obama wants to reduce payments to health insurers by that amount and use the savings ($716 billion) for preventative care to reduce Medicare costs. But you almost have it right - not.
Redwood Ed- If it wasn't for Democrats there wouldn't be SS, medicare, Medicaid, welfare and food stamps.
And maybe you should factcheck Romney/Ryan they do hold the world record of lies!
Gaffs we will except that about Joe, but the 47% tape speaks Romneys true feelings about the American people, Ryans voting record speaks for it self, as the Ryan plan does.
O&JOE
If Romney would quit saying the most ridiculous things, then maybe his coverage wouldn't be so negative. Anyone catch Romney trying to get his crowd at a rally to chant "Romney/Ryan" after they originally started chanting "Ryan, Ryan", when Paul Ryan was introduced?
I've never seen a crowd clam up so quickly. It's almost like the Republicans who attend Mitt Romney's rallies don't even like him that much.
Too funny.
I guess you consider the truth to be ridiculous then,,,
Fellow Dems, if you happen to be voting in person on Election Day, be sure to keep an eye out for official-looking although entirely unofficial Tea Party 'True the Vote' volunteer personnel loitering in or around your precinct, especially in hotly-contested swing states or in any state where a contest for a House or Senate seat is ‘too close to call’.
In general, these uniformly-dressed, clipboard wielding True the Vote volunteers have been instructed by their Koch Brother-funded mentors, wherever and whenever possible, to take up positions inside precincts themselves, side by side in teams of two at or near the point of ballot distribution, doing everything within their power to appear AUTHORITATIVE in an attempt to intimidate specific 'classes' of voters, i.e. African-American, Latino, and/or elderly non-Latino white Democrats, from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
As unbelievable as it may sound, at present very few states have policies which prohibit people from loitering for extended periods of time INSIDE a precinct, IF their outward behavior does not appear to pose either an immediate threat or imminent danger to voters or the voting process itself. The assumption has always been that after having voted, any reasonable person would head for the door and get on with their life. Well, not anymore, it seems.
Therein lies the problem. Polling station workers are themselves volunteers, and unless these True the Vote personnel make the mistake of becoming overtly aggressive, station workers may feel uncomfortable challenging their presence, especially when the True the Vote volunteer begins asserting a well-rehearsed litany of constitutional privileges or begins citing chapter and verse of thoroughly researched state or local ordinances governing precinct operations.
So…
If you see ANY True the Vote people at your precinct, or if you even SUSPECT that people from True the Vote are present, exercise your right to inform the precinct captain that YOU FEEL INTIMIDATED AND ARE ELECTING THEN AND THERE TO CALL THE POLICE. THEN DO SO.
Intimidation at the polls is a CRIMINAL as well as CIVIL violation of the law.
If either the precinct captain OR the local police fail to act, your next call should be to the local office of the FBI.
Not because the FBI will come to your aid, but filing a complaint enables national numbers to be tracked. Be sure to phone the FBI within earshot of the precinct captain, if possible, and True the Vote volunteers where practicable.
After that, you have as much right to stand in front of the True the Vote volunteers, facing them and taking their photographs using your cell phone cameras for posting on Facebook if the feeling arises, as they have to stand facing eligible voters. Just do so quietly, in full view of witnesses, and NEVER physically touch anybody at any time.
Fellow Dems, the Koch Brothers and their ilk are intent on influencing outcomes on Election Day AT THE POLLING STATIONS THEMSELVES. Fight back against these cretins, and fight back HARD.
Just imagine how the lead will grow as Mitt continues "Hoof and Mouth" speeches. The public already says they don't believe his ads. by large margins they are false!
Typical Robme, he's ignoring polls taken of "you people" in favor of his own facts that suit his own needs. This guy just never learns and is getting further out of touch by the minute!! LOL!!!
Government by the corporation for the 1%.
Robme/Lyin 1040
Government BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012!!
NO to ALL the GNOP obstructionist TRAITORS on the ballots this November. Don't forget how they held this country hostage strictly for political gain and failed to uphold their oath to serve the Citizens of the United States while millions of families lost their jobs, homes, and retirement accounts.
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You ... you ... you misspelled "Ryan" to turn it into something that sounds like "lying" I am so overwhelmed by by your INCREDIBLE cleverness that I am inspired to believe ANYTHING you tell me.
RYAN NOW KNOWS '' HE'S STUCK HIS POLITICAL NECK OUT '' , FOR AN HABITUAL LIAR , AND , AN ADMITTED FELONOUS TAX CHEAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;
Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, "If Stench calls, take a message" and "Tell Stench I'm having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later."
Even before the stench article appeared, there was a strong sign that Ryan was freeing himself from the grips of the Romney campaign.
I am expecting Ryan to not go rouge.
Bartleby. That's the ticket.
Dear "Republicans" and right-wing, in general.
Factcheck is now an off-limits source: too many posts from your side saying they are wrong.
All polls now say Obama is ahead, and all of them have been discredited by...
Again, off-limits if Romney improves in them, huh?
Sarah Palin is STILL out there, along with the millions who supported her and sent her money, told others to check her out, etc.
>>>> GALLUP POLL: <<<<
Obama 50 Romney 44
>>>> PEW SURVEY <<<<
Obama 53 Romney 39
CNN Election Board: Obama 53 Romney 46
Michigan Obama 52 Romney 38
Iowa Obama 51 Romney 44
New York Obama 62 Romney 34
Wisconsin Obama 54 Romney 40
Ohio Obama 53 Romney 43
Pennsylvania Obama 53 Romney 42
Virginia Obama 52 Romney 44
Florida Obama 53 Romney 44
Colorado Obama 50 Romney 44
Nevada Obama 51 Romney 44
CNN Question: Who would have the economy in better shape one year from now?
Obama 67% Romney 33%
CNN Question: Who will fare better in the debates? <===========
Obama 59 Romney 34
538blog:
Electoral Votes: Obama 315.4 Romney 222.1
Chance of Winning Obama 81.9 Romney 18.1
Popular Vote: Obama 51.3 Romney 47.6
Republicans hate facts. That is why they don't believe in FACT CHECK.
If the Republicans can't generate the numbers then they can't be correct. Look at who generated the current National Debt yes the Republicans starting with Reagan.
Mr. Ryan has been proven wrong with his 716B error by the Congressional Budget office, The Fact Cherker Organization and President Clinton. They continue to tell the same lie.
Mr. Romney has a big problem telling the truth about anything and when faced with the Facts as checked by Fact Checker he continues to tell the same LIE.
Mr Ryan and Mr Romney have NO creditability with the American People because they get cought in a LIE and then won't recognize the fact that they LIED. Very bad situation.
If you look at all the polls for President you can clearly see that the Republicans are losing. The Rassmutten report is always slewed 5-6 points in Mr. Romneys favor but that is OK because ALL other polls show about the same margin of lead for the Democrats.
Republicans hate facts.
Cruise, were you around during Reagan? He let several tax increases go through with a promise from Tip Oneal to get budget cuts as the Dems passed all the spending bills. If you remember towards the end of his terms he kept saying "i'm still waiting on those spending cuts".
I don't remember the numbers offhand but if you look up the debt under republican controlled congress, dem controlled congress, and mixed by far the biggest deficits have come from dem controlled congress. The lowest spending/GDP since the 70's came in the Rep congress of the late 90's.
Moot points, when Romney's blowing it completely.
Ever since the Economy tanked on Bush Jr.s watch the Republicans have been trying to Pin the Blame on Obama ever since and doing it with a straight face expecting the American Public to believe them.
Obama had nothing to do with the Bush Sub Prime Melt Down or the Unfunded Wars, but he was expected to clean up after Bush Jr. without the Republicans lifting one Finger to help him.
Mitt Romney even said it himself, Obama did not get us into this Mess, Bush Jr. and the Republicans Did and now they want their Jobs back so they can send the 47% to War in Iran and do it all over again to us.
What effected policy did Bush put into place cruise that caused the mortgage meltdown and credit freeze?
Big- It's called deregulation! Also not enforcing the laws already on the books!
There was nothing deregulated on derivatives. And there is/was no laws on the books that dealt with derivatives, Credit default swaps or the bonds that went bad due the crap loans that went bad that caused all of that to blow up. It was all about bad underwriting that allowed all of those sub prime loans to be written, that never should have been in the first place.
Reuters also says that vets are voting for President Obama by as much as a seven point margin over ol' Etch-A-Sketch. I guess that jobs bill for vets that the GOP shot down last week is coming back to haunt them.
What happen to Rep. Paul Ryan these days?
.........................COLD--FEET!!!.............................
Probably huddled in a dark closet corner, eating a quart of stale Ben & Jerry's, and muttering like that lady on Morning Joe.