Archive for the ‘Joe Biden’ Category

Video shows Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) claiming that coal power and corn syrup are more deadly than terrorism.

The remarks will likely prove a headache for an administration that is trying to distance itself from its anti-coal image.

As Scribe reported on Friday, the Obama campaign adjusted its website to promote its work with “clean coal” in the wake of an embarrassing showing in the Democratic primary in coal-intensive West Virginia. Obama lost 41% of the vote there to federal prison inmate – a fact the state’s Democratic Party chairman attributed directly to the administration’s stance on coal power.

On Meet the Press this morning, Joe Biden tangled himself and the Obama Administration up when he appeared to endorse gay marriage.

In the past, President Obama has, in what may be a political ruse, refused to endorse gay marriage. He famously said his own view on gay marriage has been “evolving.” But the Vice President, who usually speaks as a surrogate for the Administration, was more explicit on the subject:

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction– beyond that,” Biden replied.

His answer was somewhat muddled, and prefaced by a sort of disclaimer — “I am vice president of the United States of America. The president sets the policy.” — but chaotic, immediate reactions from his advisors and from Obama’s suggested he had gone too far.

The crew at Bad Lip Reading is back. You knew they would get around to Joe Biden eventually. One caution — there are a moderate-to-high number of sexual jokes in this one:

by Javier Manjarres

In 2011, Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly passed their Cut, Cap & Balance initiative that would reduce the deficit by$4 trillion over the coming decade. But while their plan is broad in scope and does not leave any social or government program uncut, Vice President Biden seems to think that the measure is a singular attempt to cut Social Security.
During his remarks to senior citizens last Friday while visiting South Florida, Biden stated that the ‘Cut’ in Cut, Cap, and Balance was all about “significant cuts to Social Security benefits” for seniors.  Biden then grew angry talking about the subject, and added that the ‘Cap’ is “what we ask of the wealthiest Americans-the top percentage of Americans and what they pay to make this country work.”
For good measure, Biden also asserted that the ‘Balance’ part of  Cut, Cap, and Balance really means that Republicans want to “balance the budget on the backs of Seniors and middle class americans to preserve a trillion dollar tax cut” for the wealthiest Americans.

VP Biden, in San Francisco: ‘Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl’
Vice President Joe Biden got his San Francisco pro sports teams mixed up at the wrong time Wednesday.

Biden told attendees at a Bay Area campaign stop that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.” According to the Oakland Tribune, the gaffe drew a “good-natured” round of boos.

The VP tried to control the damage by saying he’s accustomed to talking about the baseball Giants and their successes. He apologized, and then correctly cited the 49ers on his second attempt.

The Niners and football Giants will square off in Sunday’s NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park

Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2012-01-19/vice-president-joe-biden-in-san-francisco-says-giants-are-super-bowl-bound#ixzz1k0Cit65y

by Cowboy Byte

By PETE DU PONT

The coming political year, with presidential, House and Senate elections, will be one of the most interesting (and important) ones we have seen in a long while. The main challenge President Obama faces is persuading voters to re-elect him in spite of the disastrous results of his economic policies.

The declining economy has hit people on both ends of the economic spectrum, with the number of taxpayers with more than $1 million of income declining from from 400,000 back in 2007 to just 235,000 in 2009, and the number of people 16 older who have been unemployed over a year going from an average of 1.3 million in the last three recessions to 4.3 million in 2010. The Obama economy is the worst America has seen in four decades, with payroll employment today 5% lower than it was 41 months ago. Over the past three years, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has been higher than at any time since World War II, adding $4 trillion to our national debt.

So what to do if running for re-election in these terrible times? Many people have asked if I think President Obama will be re-elected. No, as long as the Republicans pick a viable candidate, he stands likely to be defeated. But it seems possible that the Democrat Party will pre-emptively decide that the time has come for some fresh thinking about its ticket.

Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen have urged the president to forgo re-election for the good of his party and the nation. But those don’t seem like factors that would necessarily influence this president. Instead we might see him decide to switch to a vice presidential candidate who will be stronger, better, and change the thinking of a majority of the Democrats–namely, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Last December a USA Today/Gallup poll found Mrs. Clinton to be the most admired woman in politics. A poll in March found that 66% viewed Mrs. Clinton favorably and just 31% unfavorably. Mr. Obama’s numbers, which have since declined, were 54% and 43%; Vice President Joe Biden’s, 46% to 41%. An October Time poll of last October pitted Mrs. Clinton against Republican candidates. She led Mitt Romney by 17%, Rick Perry by 26% and Herman Cain by 22%. Mr. Obama’s leads in the same poll were 3%, 12% and 12%, respectively.

Paul Starr, co-editor of The American Prospect, a liberal-left magazine, has observed that 45 percent of the people who disapprove of Mr. Obama’s performance view Mrs. Clinton favorably. It is fair to say that Mrs. Clinton’s addition to the ticket would be a substantial gain for President Obama that he badly needs next November, since she is, as Mr. Starr notes, a member of the part of his administration that has the highest approval rating, and more important she has not at all been a part of the disastrous economic policies that have caused the Obama drop in popularity. Even better for Election Day, she would gain support among older white voters, who did not support Mr. Obama very much in 2008. Mr. Starr also cites a Suffolk University Florida poll that shows that Mrs. Clinton on the Obama ticket would win Florida for the two of them, even if Sen. Marco Rubio is the Republican’s vice presidential candidate.

One more advantage: With Mrs. Clinton comes her husband, who would very much want to get his wife elected, and also might be interested in a position in the Obama-Clinton administration.

Add in that the Washington Democrats already see a political disaster coming: the Senate as well as the House is likely to have a Republican majority. Only two Republican Senate incumbents are vulnerable: the appointed Dean Heller in Nevada and elected Scott Brown of Massachusetts. By contrast, of the 23 Democrat-held seats up for re-election, political forecaster Larry Sabato sees six as safe for the Democrats, and two as likely GOP pickups. That will mean that Republicans need only to win one to four of the remaining 15 to take control of the Senate along with its House majority.

So will President Obama make the vice presidential switch? While it is not unprecedented, it is certainly unusual, and it would likely be seen in some quarters as a desperate act of a weakened president. But politicians in general, and this president especially, show a willingness to do such things if absolutely necessary to save an election. If it is just plain essential to Obama’s winning re-election next November, it will soon come to pass.

by  Madeleine Morgenstern  

A Fox Business Network anchor called Vice President Joe Biden “numb nuts” on the air Saturday when discussing Biden’s recent statements that crime rates will go up if President Barack Obama’s jobs bill is not passed.

Dagen McDowell, appearing on a Fox News panel with Neil Cavuto and several other guests, said she took issue with the “scare tactics” the White House has been employing to get the bill passed.

“They’re lecturing and hectoring,” McDowell said. “President Obama said in July, and I quote, part of the problem with the political proccess is folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win elections or obtain short-term political gain — and then you’ve got Numb Nuts out on the campaign trail talking like, he’s talking out of his backside.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cavuto said quickly while the other guests sounded similarly shocked.

As a lot of crosstalk ensued, Fox Business Network correspondent Charles Gasparino asked if anyone was actually surprised Biden was making such statements. He then suggested that calling the vice president “off his rocker” might be a better euphemism.

“I object to calling the vice president a ‘numb nut,’ just to state that for the record,” Fortune Magazine editor Adam Lashinsky cut in.

McDowell, seeming to realize what she had said, replied, “I wasn’t talking about him,” but did not offer any additional explanation.

Mediaite’s Frances Martel described the exchange this way:

This kind of language is prima facie unacceptable in political discourse, clearly, but the video is still something of a marvel, as the rest of the panel tries to initially understand what just happened and then distance themselves from it in some sort of dignified fashion.

Earlier this week, Biden told a reporter who questioned the appropriateness of his statements about rape and murder rates,  “Don’t screw around with me.” Statistics show crime rates have actually fallen in Flint, Mich., the city Biden referenced in his remarks.

MSNBC suspended Time Magazine editor and network contributor Mark Halperin after he called Obama “kind of a d*ck” on live TV in June.

Some would argue that there is something profoundly inappropriate about a vice president of the United States politicking to fourth-grade students about a jobs bill — and, perhaps subtly trying to scare those children into believing that, if the bill is not passed, they will be deprived of the necessary care and attention of their over-taxed school teachers.
Speaking in a hushed tone of voice to a class of 30 students at Goode Elementary in York City, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden shared the administration’s plan to rehire teachers — and for him, that plan has everything to do with Obama’s American Jobs Act.
According to a report in YorkDispatch, York City schools underwent budget cuts last year resulting in a 20 percent reduction in teaching jobs.
Classroom sizes are growing, and that means the remaining teachers, “don’t get to spend as much time with you,” Biden warned the children solemnly.
But it gets worse.
Biden actually told the schoolchildren that, in order to rehire some 400,000 teachers nationwide, along with thousands of police officers and firefighters, all that needs to be done is tax wealthy individuals at a higher rate than they are currently taxed.
Then, in a move perhaps intended to woo, Biden told Lenid Keebaugh’s class of fourth-graders, “We’re going to give you some money to hire them back.”
Take about $500 in additional taxes from someone who makes a million dollars – “a million dollars,” Biden stressed – and those jobs will come right back.
“They can pay for all the teachers and all the police and all the firemen to come back,” Biden enticed the young, captive audience.
Before handing out stuffed animals resembling Biden’s dog “Champ,” to the entire class, there was even a point where Biden hinted that, without rehiring additional teachers, students might not be able to realize their dreams of becoming either congressmen or senators one day.
YorkDispatch provides the unbelievable footage. Watch for yourself below:
Later that day, Biden spoke to a crowd of teachers, parents, lawmakers and local officials at the library:
Biden was pushing hard on Tuesday for Republicans to see the logic in taxing millionaires what he figures is a nominal amount for them in order to hire back thousands of teachers across the country.
“How can we afford not to do this?” Biden said to cheers inside the library.
York City has had its own tribulations on the budget cut front. A $25 million budget cut this school year cost more than 140 jobs. A few teachers have been hired back, but class sizes are still above preferred levels, Biden pointed out.
“You had no choice. But the impact in the future of our kids can’t be calculated,” Biden said.
According to the Dispatch, School board President Samuel Beard said afterward he wholeheartedly agreed with Biden’s words, and that it’s foolish for the state to expect York City to keep making progress while taking away financial resources.
The American Jobs Act can help when nobody else can, he said.
Superintendent Deborah Wortham said the dozens of jobs the act could fund means York City again could offer performing arts at the high school, music, art and library at the elementary level, classroom aides and other things the district had previously offered.
Biden said the funding isn’t a long-term solution, but that shouldn’t mean Congress ignores the idea.
“We need some temporary help now,” Biden said.

In Flint, Michigan, Biden Warns Of More Rapes And Murders If Jobs Bill Not Passed

While Vice President Joe Biden was counting sheep during the President’s “debt reduction” speech yesterday at George Washington University, Americans were counting dollars–specifically the ones it would take to pay for the President’s spending plan. The administration’s “solutions” to the deficit are so alarming that Gov. Mike Huckabee joked that Biden wasn’t sleeping–he was praying that Americans wouldn’t realize how insincere the White House is about cutting costs. In stark contrast to the two conservative proposals, the President is fiercely opposed to slimming down the government. He says, “We will all need to make sacrifices”–but by “we,” he means taxpayers. Under his plan, Washington doesn’t have to stop spending–it just needs to stick you with more of the tab. Take his idea of a “debt failsafe trigger.” Basically, the White House is suggesting that if the government spends over a certain level, an automatic tax increase would go into effect. That would be like your neighbor taking off on a shopping spree and transferring anything above their credit limit to your cards. (I don’t know about you, but “debt failsafe trigger” sounded better.) The President is also keeping up his aggressive push toward class warfare by trying to punish successful Americans with more taxes. If Obama succeeds, it would be the largest Tax Increase in American history!! “In December,” he said, “I agreed to extend the tax cuts [to everyone], and I refuse to renew them again.” Translation: don’t get too attached to the tax relief that Congress extended last year. We’re going to need that money back to pay for the agenda we promised our base. The House Republican Conference took offense to that idea, saying, “We have debts and deficits because Washington spends too much, not because the American people are taxed too little.”
If the President wants to maintain the status quo and try to balance the budget through higher taxes, it would take a 60% across-the-board tax increase!! That would further debilitate families and destroy businesses. “We will make the tough cuts necessary… but I will not sacrifice the core investments we need to grow and create jobs.” Investing is just code for more spending. In his plan, the President tacks on more money for the environment, education, infrastructure, and other pet projects. One way he plans to pay for them is penalizing generosity. Once again, the White House is promoting its favorite revenue raising gimmick–decreasing the tax benefits for charitable giving, which would make it harder for all nonprofit organizations to raise money. To Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who both released budgets that would make the government leaner and more effective, the President hinted at a rocky road to those negotiations. In his more pointed comments, he warned Republicans not to mess with Social Security (which is almost bankrupt), to stop reforming Medicare, and to keep their hands off the health care law. “The way [the GOP's budget] achieves its goals,” President Obama said, “would lead to a fundamentally different America than the one we’ve known.” That’s what voters are counting on. They’re tired of living outside America’s means. They want stability for themselves, their families, and their grandchildren. Liberals insist that we can achieve that by doubling the debt and running up the deficit. In the Spirit of Joe Biden:Dream On!!
Starting from Hatch

There are at least three people sleeping and praying for Barak to be real in this video. Biden, the gray haired woman behind him, and the black woman on the LH side. This is how important our nation’s economy is to these people….. I guess they assume that we, the taxpayers, will always be there to pay for their wasteful spending.

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, compared Republicans in Congress to people who excuse rapists by blaming their victims.

The vice president, known for speaking his mind and at times putting his foot in his mouth, said that Republicans who want to cut spending while at the same time cutting taxes for the wealthy are similar to rape apologists.

In setting up his comparison, the vice president explained to the audience that before the Violence Against Women Act that he championed was passed into law, “there was this attitude in our society of blaming the victim,” according to a press pool account of the event.

“When a woman got raped, blame her because she was wearing a skirt too short, she looked the wrong way or she wasn’t home in time to make the dinner,” Biden said.

“We’ve gotten by that,” he said. “But it’s amazing how these Republicans, the right wing of this party – whose philosophy threw us into this God-awful hole we’re in, gave us the tremendous deficit we’ve inherited – that they’re  now using, now attempting to use, the very economic condition they have created to blame the victim – whether it’s organized labor or ordinary middle-class working men and women. It’s bizarre. It’s bizarre.”

After Biden’s appearance at the fundraiser, his office tried to focus on the economic message.

“The vice president was obviously making the point that on any issue, we shouldn’t blame the victim,” Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said. “Blaming workers or union members for states’ fiscal crises – an argument made by some Republican governors – isn’t the answer.”

President Obama has tapped Biden to be his lead negotiator with congressional Republicans on the budget.

Republicans quickly seized on Biden’s comments with the party’s House campaign arm calling them “tasteless and offensive.”

“As much as Vice President Biden should retract this specific statement, he should apologize for comparing our country’s dismal economic situation to such horrid acts as violence against women,” said Joanna Burgos, spokeswoman for the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC).

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) raised about $400,000 from the fundraiser in Philadelphia. The DCCC raised more money than its Republican counterpart in February and January.

We are really embarrassed with the DINK as our Vice President.