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Biden Says McCain Economic Bailout Proposal is Notable for What it's Lacking

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September 25, 2008 5:02 PM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports: As the two rival presidential candidates confer with President Bush and Congressional leaders in Washington about an economic bailout package, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Thursday that he has seen Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., proposals for a possible plan and what caught the eye of the Democratic vice-presidential nominee was what was missing.

"What’s notable is what’s not in the package," Biden said at a rally on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, near his hometown of Scranton. "The silence on issues relating to the middle class is deafening in the package John’s put forward. There is no help for families struggling to stay in their homes. If John keeps changing his rhetoric, but not changing the worn-out philosophy that got us into this spot, if John continues to do that, ladies and gentlemen, why is John expecting us to believe he will be an agent of change? Look, that’s the reason we need change."

Biden blamed McCain for sharing President Bush's economic philosophies that the Delaware lawmaker cites as the cause of the nation's current financial crisis.

"Of all the important issues we face, all of them, all of them, John McCain has been profoundly out of touch because he’s been so in touch with President Bush’s position on those issues and nowhere, nowhere has that failed philosophy, that failed philosophy of the past eight years been more exposed than in the recent and immediate economic crisis we’re facing in this country," said Biden.

"John McCain has not disagreed with one single substantive economic reform policy initiative that George Bush has initiated in the last eight years, the very thing that’s dug us into the deepest hole we’ve been in in the last 40 years," the senator continued. "Ladies and gentlemen, where was John a week ago? Where was John a month ago? Where was John five years ago? Well, I’ll tell ya where he was, he was bragging to the very Wall Street titans he now calls the merchants of greed, he was literally on Wall Street bragging to them that he was shredding the regulations that were tying them down, and now, and now John, God love him, expects us to believe that he’s the man that’s gonna corral that greed he identified on Wall Street, he’s the man that’s gonna go out and reinstitute consumer protections and regulations so that we don’t see these cowboys run wild with your money and your future?"

"Folks," he told the crowd of 1000, "if you believe that I got a bridge for you and I guarantee you it’s a bridge to nowhere and it starts in Alaska."

Biden said that while some other politicians were "posturing", Obama had "changed the tone" of the economic crisis discourse.

"Unlike all the rest of the people talking, he's demonstrated that he's changed the tone. He's prepared to change the tone in Washington. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we mean by leadership, not posturing."

But Republicans responded by arguing that it was the Democratic presidential ticket, not McCain, that was engaging in political games.

“In times of crisis, Americans have always been able to bridge our divides and solve our problems but apparently Barack Obama’s running mate sees it as an opportunity for unfiltered partisanship and political opportunism," said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Blair Latoff. "John McCain suspended his campaign and is working with the nation’s leaders to address this serious economic crisis and believes that it is more important to put his country before his political campaign.”

September 25, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (163)

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Housing is seperate from this atrocious bailout Joe. You just have to get "helicopter Ben" to rake up that printing press so we can further inflate the cost of living by turning the dollar into toliet paper! Weimar republic, here we come. Brake out the wheelbarrows, your gonna need 100 easy for a loaf of bread and a jar of peaches yet again!

Posted by: hmn | Sep 25, 2008 5:05:47 PM

Senator Obama's birth certificate - along with the rest of the information you seek, is widely available. I believe your fake question about your inability to find this information is a thinly veiled misrepresentation, implying that Senator Obama is hiding something, or has not been forthcomming.

http://fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate

Posted by: pj | Sep 25, 2008 5:25:12 PM

Barack Obama does not need to release any records and he does not need to explain himself. That is why the media has not pushed him. They know he is destined to become POTUS.

Barack Obama is the hope and the salvation we have been looking for and waiting for. He knows this and so do so many others like Oprah Winfrey, Reverend Wright and Jesse Jackson. If you do not vote for Barack Obama there is only one reason: you are either a racist or you have been infected by Satan.

Turn away from the republicans and their games and embrace the only true man who is entitled to the election: Barack Obama.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- Barack Obama, Super Tuesday

Posted by: obama ascension | Sep 25, 2008 5:25:47 PM

Good Grief why doesn't Obama end all of this talk and produce both his actual birth certificate and his "oath of alliance" ----The oath is a "proud" document that one would save and guard. The court system is in trouble the same way our economy is...too many in high places that are dishonest. American where have you gone!

Posted by: Ann | Sep 25, 2008 5:26:23 PM

Housing is seperate from this atrocious bailout Joe.

__________

What are you, daft? Housing is at the HEART of this crisis and the reason for this bailout. Republicans are too short sighted to see that helping families by re-working bankruptcy laws to allow mortgages to be repaid on different terms would actually ASSIST the value of the assets on which these trash securities are based. All republicans see are "handouts".

Gawd... if you're going to be dumb, go be dumb in a corner... stop dragging the rest of us down with you.

Posted by: PJ | Sep 25, 2008 5:27:13 PM

I think Biden attacking Mc Cain is noteworthy because the biased media will run all the ranting to promote it.

Posted by: infoseeking | Sep 25, 2008 5:29:40 PM

Democrat All My Life: I still haven't seen the same documentation relating to either McCain or Palin. And let's get serious here -- Palin's college transcripts and tax returns would make for interesting reading, and McCain's medical records (check his left eye in recent photos -- something's up!) need to be released pronto. And you need to get on with REAL issues. Give it a rest, why don't ya!

Posted by: hang | Sep 25, 2008 5:30:03 PM

WHO SHOULD OVERSEE THE FIX and WHO SHOULD BE HEADING TO JAIL?

Too many have fed at the trough. What Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives did was illegal.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/09/fanny-mae-freddie-mac-congressional.html

Still no time to panic, but some executives and some in Congress should see jail time.

Posted by: PacificGatePost | Sep 25, 2008 5:30:16 PM

Ann: Geeezzz his birth certificate was posted for days, do a fact find on it. I am not sure but I don't think he can or would send you the actually certificate so you would stop this rant about him not having one. Give it up already.

Posted by: beck | Sep 25, 2008 5:36:42 PM

Maybe Biden is having his 3rd brain aneurysm. Where are his medical records? He found a doctor to say he was so medically ill, he couldn't serve in Vietnam after 5 DRAFT DEFERRALS! Do you think Dan Rather is working on what Biden did during Vietnam????

Posted by: Karen | Sep 25, 2008 5:37:42 PM

Is this all you guys can come up with... Obama's birth certificate... Lets see John McCains???

Posted by: beck | Sep 25, 2008 5:38:09 PM

Democrate all my life: Did you just wake up with Bush??? What???

Posted by: beck | Sep 25, 2008 5:38:55 PM

Barney Frank's lover was a FANNIE MAE executive, one of the honcho who pushed for more loans to low-income people that don't require any income check, and no documentation. Many were illegal aliens. So Barney shows the taxpayer the back door while his boyfriend is screwing the taxpayer. A freakin' orgy!!!

Posted by: Karen | Sep 25, 2008 5:39:47 PM

hmn, housing/mortgage crisis is the center of the bailout. The entities that they are going to bailout are in their position because of all the bad loans they gave out. The bad loans are there because they were trying to make money on people wanting to borrow.

Some people used this lending practices to buy beyond their means, which is their own fault, but others did not understand what the loan really meant, which is the lending company's problem. One of the things that some of the lawmakers want in the bailout bill is a way to allow judges to change the mortgage terms to prevent people from losing their homes. This would actually benefit the lender and the borrower since the lender will still get money, and the borrower gets to keep their home.

Posted by: Mack | Sep 25, 2008 5:40:38 PM

While us Americans are stupidly commenting on age, debates, lipstick, etc., Putin is lending Chavez $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to buy weapons! Now that is something to talk about. Here we are in a financial crisis and a Nov. presidential election, and we will have enemies south of our border with all sort of weapons and help from Russia. We will soon have a new commander in chief. We REALLY need a good one. Think very hard about this. We not only have to worry about the terrorist blowing up our cities but now we will have Chavez who hates us so much with Soviet money, weapons and power. We need to get our house in order and come together as a nation and quit this silly talk. We need someone in Washington who has experience in foreign affairs and this person needs to select carefully people with great financial experience for key posts.

Posted by: letshavecommonsense | Sep 25, 2008 5:40:59 PM

John McCain was sponsoring legislation to address the problems with Fannie/Freddie. Democrats blocked by party line vote. Joe Biden and Obama are trying to negate their roles in this scandal. They should be ashamed of the lies they have told. Barney Frank told congress as recently as May 2008 that Fannie & Freddie were financially sound! No integrity from Biden or Obama. Only Lies and Finger Pointing! They need to return the money they received before they look to take our money!

Posted by: ubu1991 | Sep 25, 2008 5:41:35 PM

I read an article today where the doctor who wrote it is a Republican. She talked about McCains cancer and his history on it. She is a specialist on his condition. She gives him maybe 2 to 3 years before it comes back and kills him. I wish I would have copied it down for you guys but I did not. Hope someone else saw it today.

Posted by: beck | Sep 25, 2008 5:41:54 PM

pj, you are nuts!!

Posted by: Edward Henderson | Sep 25, 2008 5:43:59 PM

ubu1991: You too are nuts; you are imagining things; go see your doctor quick.

Posted by: Edward Henderson | Sep 25, 2008 5:45:27 PM


John McCain's birth certificate is currently unavailable, as it is written on Papyrus and needs to be maintainted
in a cool dark cellar underneath some
stones in ancient Babylon.

Posted by: Leprkin | Sep 25, 2008 5:45:48 PM

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