Biden Says He Longs for the Days of 'Compromise'

Vice President Joe Biden isn’t an announced presidential candidate for 2016. But his remarks in Concord at the Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership, and Public Policy on Feb. 25, 2015, sure sounded like stump speech asking Democratic voters to stay the course.

Biden was in the capital city to receive the Warren B. Rudman Award for Distinguished Public Service, the second one awarded by the center, from Executive Director John Broderick.

In his introduction, Biden thanked the center and Rudman’s family in particular noting the legacy he left for others by doing things “the New Hampshire way” and for building compromise inside the U.S. Senate to get the work of government accomplished. He said the Senate would be a different place today had Rudman still been around to show everyone else his leadership.

Biden added though that while things seemed contentious, it wasn’t like some of the more difficult times during the country’s past, such as the days of the Civil War or when he came to the Senate in the 1970s. He said it wasn’t so much the divisiveness between the parties today as the political system itself that was the problem. Biden noted that things would have to change though and that the people were demanding it.

“I case you didn’t notice, last year, was the lowest turnout in voting since 1942, in the middle of a war,” he said. “I believe we can and will make government better if we focus on solutions.”

Biden spent another 20 minutes or so highlighting the administration’s accomplishments attempting to turn the economy around including controversial decisions to bail out automakers, prop up the banking system before it collapsed, and pass the Affordable Care Act that tackled the deficit, held down insurance costs, and established healthcare as “a right.” The president, as well, had sent him to negotiate with Republicans to avert a government shut down – something that seemed to make him enemies within his own party, he noted – but that kept the country functioning.

Biden said the president and Congress’ decision to come together and allow the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire a couple of years ago had brought in more than $600 billion in revenue. Cutting $716 billion out of Medicare, while expanding coverage, and cutting $23 billion out of farm subsidies, were “the right thing to do” in order to end wasteful spending. Ending the wars early will eventually save $1.4 trillion, he noted. Biden said having Republicans at the table, working on compromises, helped accomplish this. Those actions, he said, reduced the deficit by two-thirds since he and the president were sworn into office six years ago.

He called Republican leaders like U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, “a good, smart guy,” and the Koch Brothers “good people who aren’t doing anything illegal,” as well as commending the wealthiest 1 percent of wage earners, who were just doing what they should be doing as capitalists, he said. He did challenge, however, whether or not Wall Street and moneyed interests should be allowed to reap all of the benefits of society and control elections with their large campaign contributions. Publicly financed elections would also help, too, he said.

Biden also called on leaders to raise capital gains and estate taxes back up to the levels of the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan in order to tackle the remaining part of the deficit and invest money back into assisting the middle-class with job retraining and community college assistance for the jobs of the future.

“And we know there’s so much more that needs to be done,” he said. “The country has gone from crisis to recovery, and now will go to resurgence, if we’re wise … wages have started to tick up … America is not only back, it’s leading the world again.”

Before leaving to head downtown and to Manchester Community College to speak about educational opportunities and learn about the school’s welding program, he took questions from law students at the school.

The Republican National Committee sent out a response to some of Biden’s comments in Concord.

Raffi Williams, the party’s deputy press secretary, stated, “Vice President Biden continues to push the same agenda that has left Americans with stagnant wages and with the lowest labor force participation rate in a generation. Whether it’s Obama, Biden, or Democrat nominee in hiding Hillary Clinton, voters in New Hampshire and across the country are fed up and want a different direction.”