Americans have a right to be angry about the economy, but their frustrations should be aimed at the Republicans at the helm when the Great Recession started, Democratic Vice President Joe Biden told an Omaha audience Thursday.
By the time President Obama took office, the nation already had lost 3 million jobs in the previous six months. It lost another 3 million six months after Obama took office, before the president's economic plans and policies were in place, Biden said.
“We've begun to turn things around,” said Biden, noting the economy has grown for the last four consecutive quarters.
Biden headlined a fundraiser at the Omaha Field Club for State Sen. Tom White, a Democrat who is trying to oust six-term U.S. Rep. Lee Terry from his 2nd Congressional District seat. About 285 people attended the event, noshing on tuna croissants and chicken-salad sandwiches.
White's campaign raised about $120,000 at the minimum rate of $250 per person, said Ian Russell, White's campaign manager.
Biden arrived an hour late to the event, but he had a good excuse. He said he was talking to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the airplane en route to Omaha when he lost his telephone signal. Communication was restored once his airplane hit the ground, and his conversation with Mubarak resumed.
“I know you hear that excuse a lot, the old Mubarak excuse,” Biden joked.
Biden is the latest Democratic officeholder in the Midwest. His visit came a day after President Barack Obama held a townhall-style meeting in Des Moines.
Obama and Biden are touring the nation, spreading their message that the economy is slowly, but surely beginning to improve. It comes before the fall elections, when many political pundits expect Democrats to lose seats in both houses of Congress.
Biden has appeared at congressional fundraisers in New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania in recent days, and was headed to New Mexico after Nebraska.
Biden stayed on script throughout his 45-minute Omaha speech, echoing many of the same themes put forth by Obama in Iowa. Specifically, he pushed for suppport for Obama's plan to allow President Bush's tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.
It costs the nation $700 billion in lost revenue each year to extend those tax cuts to couples who make more than $250,000 a year, said Biden.
“We should either give the $700 billion to the middle class, or reduce the deficit,” said Biden.
Biden praised White, saying he was his “kind of guy,” one who would come to Washington, D.C., and support the president's efforts to create jobs.
He also had a kind word for Terry, saying he held nothing “personal” against the Republican he called “a decent guy.”
But, Biden said, it was time for voters to send Terry home, saying the congressman and his fellow Republicans should be held accountable for the deficit spending that occurred under Bush and for the economic recession.
Terry voted for the Bush-era tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 without covering the lost revenue by reducing spending, Biden said. And Terry voted for an unfunded, $600 billion prescription drug plan and voted to put “two wars on your credit card.”
“If Lee had his way, we'd be going right back to where we were before we got into this mess,” said Biden.
Terry responded that he has voted more than 80 times to cut spending.
He said Obama's health-care legislation and economic stimulus package drove up federal spending by $2 trillion.
“Voters who approve of the Obama administration's policies can vote for my opponent. Voters who want a new direction — and change — can vote for me,” said Terry.
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