VP Joe Biden to Florida seniors: Mitt Romney would threaten Medicare

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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-biden-florida-romney-medicare-20120928,0,1600478.story

(snip)
“Although I was raised by a righteous Christian, my dad, I was raised by an awful lot of folks back home politically who taught me early on, along with my pop, that we have certain special obligations around the world. One of those, one of those, is Israel,” Biden told a predominantly elderly crowd at a retirement community in Boca Raton.

“I’m not going to talk about Israel today, I just want to say one thing. I just want to tell you how proud I am, how proud I am to stand shoulder to shoulder with a guy who has done more for Israel’s physical security than any president of the eight I’ve served with,” he continued.

(snip)
“Could you fathom me voting for or introducing as vice president, can you fathom the president of the United States introducing a, quote, ‘solution’ to Medicare that would raise the cost on seniors by $6,400 a year?” Biden asked a crowd of more than 800 in Tamarac.

“A lot of you who are my age, you know one of the things we learn is, it’s not just what you say, it’s what you’ve done. And ladies and gentlemen, I’d just ask you, who is likely to be telling you the truth? Someone who’s spent 40 years of his life defending Medicare ... or these folks who’ve already demonstrated what they’re prepared to do.”


In Florida, Biden assails Romney-Ryan ticket over Medicare, Social Security taxes
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/28/14142657-in-florida-biden-assails-romney-ryan-ticket-over-medicare-social-security-taxes?lite

(snip)
"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."

(snip)
"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.

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1. Right on, Joe!