Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Biden: Don't let GOP 'steal' credit for recovery

Vice President Biden, speaking in Philadelphia Friday morning, said Democrats can't allow Republican to "steal" credit for the burgeoning recovery – and that his party must forcefully make the argument that their policies worked while the GOP's didn’t.

WASHINGTON – Vice President Biden, speaking in Philadelphia Friday morning, said Democrats can't allow Republican to "steal" credit for the burgeoning recovery – and that his party must forcefully make the argument that their policies worked while the GOP's didn't.

"The Republican party is going to try to claim this resurgence and they're going to misrepresent that it was because of quote, policies that they supported," Biden told House Democrats at the Society Hill Sheraton. "It's a bunch of malarkey."

But he said, "if we don't speak up and reassert the case we made, it may stick politically. These guys are pretty good."

In a sometimes rambling speech, Biden spoke for 40 minutes (more than twice as long as President Obama did Thursday) as House Democrats wrapped up a three-day strategy session here. While the party is licking its wounds from decisive defeats in November, Biden, like other Democrats who have spoken here, did not argue for new ideas, but instead said Democrats need to make a better case that the policies they have implemented have successfully turned around the economy.

The fight over whose ideas brought the economy back, he said, will determine what kind of policies gain traction going forward.

"This isn't about us getting credit," Biden said. "It's about how government policy can and did change America, and people are attempting to steal that story … it's our chance to set the record straight, and to build on it."

Biden also questioned Republicans' definition of "job creators."

"Stockholders aren't the only job creators," he said, adding that everyone in a business should share in the benefits when it prospers.

Republicans have fired back at Obama, Biden and the Democrats meeting here by pointing out that voters chose the GOP to control Congress last fall, saying the public has rejected Democratic tax and spend policies that would stifle economic growth.

More on the speech to come.

You can follow Tamari on Twitter or email him at jtamari@phillynews.com.