Biden blasts McCain policies during Iowa rally

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By Charlotte Eby | Monday, September 8, 2008 9:14 PM CDT | () comments

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., speaks during a rally, Monday, Sept. 8, 2008, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP PHOTO)

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DES MOINES — Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden leveled a blistering critique of GOP nominee John McCain’s economic policies and argued during a campaign stop Monday in Iowa that McCain would offer little change to help struggling Americans.

Citing the highest unemployment rate in five years, Biden said a lot of people around the country are hurting and blasted McCain and running mate Sarah Palin for what he said was a failure to recognize the problems.

“If you listened to them at the convention, they made good political speeches but their silence was deafening, deafening, on all the things that matter to the American people,” Biden said.

What McCain or Palin didn’t talk about was about health care, helping college students or pensions, Biden said.

Middle-class Americans are living with a level of anxiety Biden said he hasn’t seen before with the housing crisis, retirement and college tuition costs on their minds.

He ripped McCain’s plan to tax health-care benefits extended to workers, which he called a “bridge to nowhere.”

Biden said he found it fascinating that McCain and Palin are claiming the mantle of change in this election, when McCain agrees so much with the Bush administration on policy issues.

“As Barack said, what do they think we are, completely stupid?” Biden said.

Biden touted running mate Barack Obama’s tax plan, which he said would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans who draw a paycheck and give middle-class taxpayers three times the amount of tax relief over the McCain-Palin ticket’s plan.

Republican State Auditor David Vaudt argued that it would take significant revenues in the form of taxes to support Obama’s and Biden’s spending plans.

“Taxpayers in Iowa and across this nation are going to end up paying for the plans that they have, and politicians are good at making promises but not telling you how they’re going to actually fund those costs,” Vaudt said on a conference call with reporters.

Monday was Biden’s first return trip since Iowa’s presidential caucuses in January, and he referred to the state as his “second political home,” at times stopping during his speech to recognize those he knew in the crowd.

An estimated 1,200 people turned out to see Biden on a rainy day at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

His visit came as national polls showed McCain opening up a lead over Obama.

Former state Democratic chairman Dave Nagle of Cedar Falls, who attended the rally with Biden, is predicting a tight race for the contest to win Iowa’s seven electoral votes.

“I have sensed in the Obama campaign an overconfidence that’s unjustified,” Nagle said. “I think this thing is going to be a dogfight to the very end, and it actually may depend upon Obama’s capacity to break in states that were traditionally Republican like Montana, recapturing states that were Democratic like Iowa.”

Charlotte Eby can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.