Joe Biden, in Scranton, Says Trump Owes Current Economy to Obama Years

[UncleNoel]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/joe-biden-scranton-speech.html

snips//

In a speech that was billed as an outline of Mr. Biden’s economic policy, the former vice president attacked President Trump’s biggest argument for re-election. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. accused President Trump of “squandering” the economy he inherited from the Obama administration, and promised to reverse Mr. Trump’s tax cuts.

SCRANTON, Pa. — Joseph R. Biden Jr. returned to his native city on Wednesday seeking to undermine President Trump’s strongest argument to voters for re-election: the resilient economy. He accused Mr. Trump of inheriting an economic upturn, but “just like everything else he inherited, he’s in the midst of squandering it.”

Mr. Biden’s speech was billed as an economic policy address, yet it was light on new plans; he repeated many ideas he has previously advanced. Instead, he made an emotional appeal rooted in his middle-class biography to restore the “values” of an American compact, in which hard work allowed average families to afford a home, higher education and health care.

“There used to be a basic bargain in America: If you contribute to the well-being of the outfit you work with, you got to share in the benefits,” Mr. Biden said, speaking to a few hundred in a downtown auditorium. “That bargain’s been broken.”

Although corporate profits are up, Mr. Biden said, middle-class wages are stagnant and families are buckling under the burden of health bills and college. He promised to undo Republican tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy.

***

Mr. Biden hit many of the same themes later in a lengthy speech he gave in West Point, Iowa, where he again talked about his family story and cast Mr. Trump as impervious to the needs of the middle class. He also took several veiled swipes at Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has said she will soon detail her plans to pay for “Medicare for all.”

Mr. Biden supports building on the Affordable Care Act and adding a public option, but has suggested Medicare for all is unrealistic and too expensive.

“My competitors are really well-meaning people,” he said, but added: “None of them told you how Medicare for all is going to be paid for.”
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After the event, Mr. Biden, in response to a question from a reporter, again expressed regret for his 1998 use of the term “partisan lynching” in a discussion about impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton. Mr. Biden had also tweeted an apology on Tuesday for using the term.

“I was wrong to have said it and I apologize for having said it,” Mr. Biden said on Wednesday.

But he also criticized Mr. Trump for using the term “lynching,” with its legacy of racist murders of African-Americans, to describe the impeachment inquiry he currently faces. Mr. Trump, he argued, was using the term “as a dog whistle.”

“When has he ever taken, when has he ever said a negative thing about a white supremacist?” Mr. Biden said of the president. “Have you heard him say anything? I haven’t.”

Mr. Biden’s appearance in Scranton came the same day that a new CNN national poll showed him with a commanding lead in the Democratic primary, with the support of 34 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters, followed by Ms. Warren at 19 percent and Senator Bernie Sanders at 16 percent. It is Mr. Biden’s widest lead in the CNN survey since shortly after he announced his bid for president.

But there is no national primary, of course, and Mr. Biden’s advantage in the early-primary states Iowa and New Hampshire has ebbed or evaporated. The CNN survey is a sign that nationally he has retained strong support despite facing weeks of unproved attacks by Mr. Trump on him and his son Hunter over their activities in Ukraine, an issue driving the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Mr. Biden’s economic prescriptions, less sweeping than those of other leading Democrats seeking the nomination, include a $15 federal minimum wage, tripling funding for schools with at-risk students, free community college and a plan for students to pay down their college debt by committing to community service.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is only 3.9 percent, though it is 5.2 percent in Lackawanna County, where Scranton is. But a manufacturing downturn may be underway statewide, with 8,100 jobs lost this year so far, an issue that could cut into the president’s 2016 promises to restore industry in the Rust Belt.

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While Mr. Biden visited Scranton, in northeast Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump was scheduled to be in Pittsburgh, in the western part of the state, on Wednesday afternoon, to address natural gas drillers. The president’s visit comes close to the first anniversary of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in that city, when a gunman killed 11 worshipers.

Though Democrats made strong gains in the 2018 midterms in Pennsylvania, it is very much up in the air whether they will carry the state next year, and who would be their most formidable opponent to the president. Mr. Trump has held rallies both before and after his election at an arena in nearby Wilkes-Barre that drew some 10,000 people.

Although Hillary Clinton narrowly carried Lackawanna County, Mr. Trump cut deeply into the Democratic margin of more than 26,000 votes that Barack Obama piled up here in 2012.

Democrats have been arguing ever since about how to recapture those voters, mostly white and working class, and how much to focus on them. Mr. Biden, who is regarded warmly by many Pennsylvanians thanks to his history here, spent many minutes recounting family stories he has told regularly: his father moving alone to Delaware for a job but promising to send for the family when he could afford to; his father feeling ashamed when a bank turned him down for a loan to pay for his son’s college. His father telling young “Joey” that “the measure of success is not whether you get knocked down, it’s how quickly you get up.”

The split-screen moment in Pennsylvania comes after weeks of clashes between the Trump and Biden camps. In the last month, Mr. Biden has faced concerns from some Democrats over whether he was responding quickly and aggressively enough to Mr. Trump’s attacks. His campaign has settled on a strategy of frequently criticizing Mr. Trump and seeking to discredit his messages, while also focusing on policy matters — health care in particular.

[Thekaspervote]

1. Of course the squatter in the wh thinks he appeared and the economy magically is great

[Pachamama]

2. This needs to be repeated and explained over and over

It is about time this is being said...

It makes me furious that this vile obscene stupid failure falsely claims that he is responsible for the economy when in fact he has done more to harm it.

[moose65]

4. Yep! I'm glad Biden said that

Republicans have collective amnesia, and Trump thinks the economy was going down the drain when he was elected. Not one of them will acknowledge that Obama and Democrats saved this country in 2009 and 2010 when the economy was literally in free fall, due in large part to Republican policies.

Republicans have no problem taking credit for and bragging about things they had nothing to do with, but it seems that Democrats are almost afraid to toot their own horns, out of fear of "alienating" those mythical swing voters, I guess. I don't get it. I've seen comments from Republicans who claim that Obama did nothing for this country, and that Trump has "done so much." Makes my head spin.

I always try to push back, asking "What exactly has Trump done to help the economy?" Usually they have no answer beyond generalities and "he's draining the swamp" nonsense. But really, have the Republicans done one thing that actually helps the economy? Their only major piece of legislation was the tax reform bill, which I guess provided a short-term stimulative "sugar high" that is now fading away. Anything else? I doubt it.......

[UncleNoel]

3. Joe Biden blasts Trump for 'squandering' a strong economy and forgetting the middle class

Another article on this speech.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/23/biden-hits-trump-over-economy-during-pennsylvania-2020-campaign-speech.html

snip//


Former Vice President Joe Biden accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of ignoring middle-class interests and endangering economic growth as he made his case for the White House in a key 2020 battleground state.

Biden returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to mount an argument against Trump’s economy hours before Trump was schedule to appear across the state in Pittsburgh. He said the president has looked out for the interests of the wealthy rather than the working class by passing a tax plan that largely benefits richer Americans and corporations and by watering down Obama administration rules designed to protect workers.

Trump has pointed to strong U.S. economic numbers — like the unemployment rate and gross domestic product growth — as he makes his case for reelection in 2020. Democrats hoping to challenge him have argued the president’s policies have not boosted prosperity for the middle class despite the statistics.

“If you’re going to restore the middle class, you’re going to need to start to reward work again, not just wealth,” Biden said during a 45-minute address.

“Donald Trump inherited a strong economy from Barack and me. Things were beginning to really move. And just like everything else he’s inherited, he’s in the midst of squandering it.”

The former vice president aimed to contrast his economic vision from Trump’s in a key electoral state that is also essential to the brand he has long tried to cultivate as “Middle Class Joe.” Biden promoted his plan for a public health-care option, which he said would reduce costs for middle-class Americans, and his proposal to improve public education and cut college costs to improve job opportunities.

[Cha]

5. We sure as hell do! Mahalo for stating that,

Joe Biden!