Subject: FW: Remarks by the Vice President at a Campaign Event, Tampa, FL
From: "Chung, Kathy" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:27:18 +0000

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release                                                                        October 19, 2012

REMARKS OF VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT

Sun City Community Center
Tampa, Florida

12:30 P.M. EDT

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  How are you?  (Applause.)  Thank you, Barbara.

     AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you.  Folks -- thank you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

     Folks, I want to introduce you --

     AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you.  Thank you, so much.  Folks, before I begin I want to introduce you to the love of my life and the life of my love, this is my daughter, Ashley Biden.  (Applause.)

     Ashley is a social worker, and a married lady.  But my mom, who was an Irish-Catholic lady named Jean Finnegan Biden, and she had all kinds of expressions.  One was: A son is a son till he gets a wife; a daughter is a daughter the rest of her life.  (Laughter.)   So she took off the last couple weeks of work, unpaid vacation, to come down and make sure her dad didn't get in too much trouble.  Thank you for being here, baby. (Laughter and applause.)  Say hello, Ash.

     And I'm glad to be here with one of my truly good friends.  You know in the United States Congress, you'll stand up and a senator or a congressperson will say, my good friend from -- well, this is my good friend.  (Laughter and applause.)  I want to tell you something about this guy.  This guy has got a backbone like a ramrod.  (Laughter.)  And he has the most important currency anyone can possess I would argue in life but clearly in the business he's in, and that is he is a man of his word.  Whatever he says, he does; and I love him for it.  (Applause.)

     Folks, before I begin I want to remind you all -- you don't need reminding -- but in Florida you can vote now.  (Applause.)  Even before early voting starts on the 27th, just go to your county supervisor of elections and ask for an absentee ballot.  Most places you can fill it out right there, and it is done.  It is done.

     And, folks, if you look around the country, I can -- places like Iowa where there's early voting, I hope it keeps up because we're winning the early voting.  (Applause.)  And we're going to -- so go -- (applause).

     Folks, look, I know no one paid attention, but we've now had three debates.  (Laughter.)  Only about 70 million or whatever the number was people watched it -- two between the President and the Governor and one with me and Congressman Ryan.  (Applause.)

     And I think that one thing has come across pretty clearly to the American people, and this is not hyperbole, we have fundamentally different views on how to move this country forward.  And equally as important -- and I mean this seriously -- is a fundamentally different value set, a fundamentally different set of values.

     These are honorable decent men, good fathers, good husbands, but they have a fundamentally different value set than we have about how to move about -- go about moving this nation forward.  The differences are profound -- on foreign policy, on Afghanistan.  You may recall in my debate I made it absolutely clear that the President and I will leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014, period.  No ifs, ands or buts.  (Applause.)

     Because -- because our job will be done.  We have trained 315,000 Afghan soldiers already.  It's their time to step up, take on responsibility for their own countries and for us to come home -- as we did in Iraq.  (Applause.)

     But Governor Romney -- Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan made it clear they're willing to stay.  They say that maybe we can leave in 2014, and this is their phrase, it all depends.

     Well, folks, that shouldn't surprise you because with Romney and Ryan, everything depends.  (Laughter.)  It depends on the moment.  It depends on who they're talking to.  It depends on -- no, I don't think that's unfair.  It depends on, in the case of Governor Romney, what day of the week it is.  (Laughter.)  I mean I've never seen a man move on so many fundamental issues over a period of four to six years in my life.

     Another place where the differences could not be more stark, as the debate showed, between our team and their team is that -- is on women's rights.  (Applause.)

     President Obama, as I've said repeatedly, and we've demonstrated repeatedly, the President and I are absolutely committed to one thing, and no one should make any mistake about this -- for real, because some of you may not like what I'm about to say -- but no one should make any mistake, we are absolutely, positively committed that my daughter and the President's daughters and my four granddaughters have every single, solitary opportunity to control their lives as my son and my grandsons, without exception.  Every single one.  (Applause.)

     You heard the debates.  It was made very clear that they do not share that view.  They do not believe a woman has the right to control her own body.  Romney and Ryan made it clear that they're willing to impose their private views on the public -- clear.  It's clear.  They don't believe in protecting a woman's equal access to health care.  On women's health, they're prepared to turn -- as Barbara said, turn the decisions back to the insurance companies where if you know -- check with your -- with your daughters out there.  Check with them.  They get charged 50 percent more on average for the same health care your sons get charged -- 50 percent more; where pregnancy is literally a preexisting condition.  No, I'm serious.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I know.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Under the Obama legislation, that cannot go on.  They're not allowed to do that.  (Applause.)

     And, folks, and after listening -- after listening to -- particularly to Congressman Ryan because it was very stark, the view that he and -- he expressed on behalf of he and Governor Romney, how many of you think after a Romney-appointed Supreme Court four years from now, Roe v. Wade will still be the law?

     AUDIENCE:  No!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Ladies and gentlemen, on Tuesday when the Governor was asked a direct question about equal pay for women, he talked about binders.  (Laughter.)  No, no, that was his answer.  If this wasn't so serious, you'd think I was making this up.  He came back and he said, well, I have binders full of qualified women.  (Laughter.)  How did he have to go ask for binders to find qualified women?

     I mean really it is pretty -- kind of a -- it gives sort of window into how he thinks about these things.  Ladies and gentlemen, and he didn't answer the -- he didn't answer the question:  Are women entitled to equal pay for equal work?

     And I want to tell you something, this is not just -- as the President said, it's not just a matter of equity and fairness.  I don't want my daughter who graduated from Tulane and got a master's degree from Penn as a qualified social worker, did incredibly well in grad school, I don't want her doing the same job a man does and somebody telling me, she's not entitled to the same exact pay.  I don't want to hear that.  (Applause.)

And by the way -- by the way, nor does her husband.  Nor do your sons-in-laws and sons who married because it's about economic power.  It's about the impact on families.  It's more than an issue of women's rights.  It's about economic rights and economic power.  So when a woman doesn't get paid equally, the family suffers, your grandchildren suffer, your son-in-law suffers.  (Applause.)

     But, folks, it shouldn't surprise you the Governor didn't answer the question, coming from a man who according to a senior advisor wasn't even for the Lilly Ledbetter Act.  And all that did -- all that talk about Lilly Ledbetter, all it did was say if a woman finds out she's been cheated at work in terms of her just compensation, she can sue for just compensation from the moment she finds out.  There used to be a law that said if she didn't find it out for the first little bit of time, the statute of limitations ran and she lost her right to bring that action -- minor change.  Ryan voted against that in the Senate and Romney's spokesperson said he would have vetoed it or he would have voted against it were he there as well.  Talk about being out of touch.

     And now, they're even abandoning the core organizing principles of this new Republican Party.  And when I say new Republican Party, I don't mean that in a denigrating way.  This is not your father's Republican Party though.  (Laughter.)  I don't know what state you all are from, but these aren't the Republicans you grew up with, maybe supporting -- maybe good -- not the people I worked with and my colleague worked with all those years in the United States Senate.  This is as my younger granddaughter would say, this is a different breed of cat.  (Laughter.)  They're good people, but this is not even Mitt Romney's father's Republican Party.

But what have been the core organizing principles of this new Republican Party, and they've been championing it at all the conservative intellectual centers in the country.  And they are.  They're smart and they have a firm view, and that is based on two things -- massive tax cuts for the very wealthy, because they are the job creators -- (laughter) -- in these people's view and significant cuts, particularly in entitlements, to vital programs out there because that's the only way to get the country in shape, they argue.

It's not an illegitimate position to take.  I fully disagree with it.  But that's been the organizing principle of the Republican Congress for the last four years.  That's been the organizing principle of all the candidates who ran for the nomination on the Republican Party.

And now, after the convention we find out, no, we didn't mean that.  No, there's no $5 trillion tax cut.  We don't have one of those.  You heard Romney say that and you heard Ryan say that.  And now, all of a sudden, Congressman Ryan says his budget doesn't actually cut vital programs that slow growth.  No, here's what he says.  He's changed the whole view.  I'm serious, here's what he says now.  He said, I do not cut those programs, I just slow the growth of those programs.  (Laughter.)

Well, that's the same budget that has already passed the House of Representatives with every Republican maybe but one or two voting for it, and the same budget that a guy who's never been accused of being a liberal, Newt Gingrich called "right wing social engineering."  That was Newt Gingrich's phrase, not mine.

And all of a sudden that's not their budget anymore.  They've already passed it once.  And now, Ryan is saying his budget doesn't eliminate the guarantee of Medicare, it doesn't eviscerate education.  That's like Romney standing in an unemployment line in Florida and turning to the guy and saying, you know, I didn't outsource your job, I off-shored it.  (Laughter and applause.)

You guys may remember -- you know me I'm the quiet type.  (Laughter.)  You remember about three months ago, I was pointing out The Washington Post pointed out that Romney, when he was running Bain -- by the way, honorable company, honorable people -- no, no, I'm serious they are.  But the point is their job is totally different than a job of a President.  Their job is to maximize profits wherever you go.  And it's not a bad thing, but that's not the job of a President.  So that's why the Washington Post, looking at all the records of Bain, said that Romney running Bain was a pioneer in outsourcing.  A pioneer in -- so I was making these speeches about that is a legitimate business enterprise, but it's not what a President's job -- a President's job is to create jobs in America, bring jobs back to America, keep jobs here in America.  That's the President's job.  (Applause.)

     Now, Bill, I don't know if you remember, but when I had made that first speech, the Romney campaign responded and said -- in very -- they had some important guy responding and he said the following:  What Vice President Biden doesn't understand, there's a difference between outsourcing and off-shoring.  (Laughter.)

     Tell that to all those folks who don't have a job because a factory picked up and went to the cheapest place with the cheapest wages, with the least regulations they could go -- helped by Governor Romney.

     Ladies and gentlemen, the President said the day after the debate that Romney's plans had become awfully -- sketchy is the phrase the President used.  I'm reluctant to correct the President on anything.  (Laughter.)  But I would respectfully suggest, they're not sketchy -- they're Etch-a-sketchy.  (Laughter and applause.)

     You know those Etch-a-Sketch tablets that your granddaughters and grandsons have?  Man, I tell you, they're shaking that sucker.  (Laughter.)  I'll tell you what.  And they're dialing in a new sketch.  (Laughter.)  I'm serious.

     Let's talk for a second about Medicare.  With Medicare they've gone to great pains to tell you how we -- Barack and I -- have cut Medicare, have stolen from it and have done all these things -- you see these ads about 219 -- or $719 billion, et cetera.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if any of you -- I know there's no woman out here who knows anybody on Medicare, but -- (laughter) -- but some of you guys do.  (Laughter.)  Here are the facts -- and you know them.  The facts are, since the President has moved and streamlined the system, people who were approaching the doughnut hole -- and only we seniors know what the doughnut hole is -- that prescription drug place where you fall into oblivion, where you have to pick up the total price of your drug costs -- they're saving $600 a year already.  Already.  That's happened.  (Applause.)

     Now, secondly, today, if you go for a wellness visit, there's no co-pay.  There used to be a co-pay.  If you have a standard exam, whether it's a colonoscopy or a mammogram, no co-pay now.  (Applause.)

     Look, and in the process, we have guaranteed the solvency of the Medicaid trust fund till the year 2024.  (Applause.)

     So what they tell you is not true.  But it's what they don't tell you that's most important.  Remember sometimes when your kids would come in after curfew and they tell you that -- when they left, but they wouldn't tell you -- the silent part was where they'd been.  (Laughter.)  You know what I mean?  Well, let's take a look at what they're not telling you.

     What they're not telling you is that their move would eliminate all those things immediately.  And this is factual.  Facts are stubborn things; they matter.  If they succeed, if they were elected in January and immediately repeal what we've done with regard to Medicare and health care, your premiums will go up on average $312 a year.  Immediately.  For those of you on Medicare right now, that's what will happen.

     Medicare trust fund will become insolvent in 2016 if they do away with the savings we have put into the system.  What they're really don't want to talk you about is they really don't want to talk to you about what they call this premium support.  It's a voucher.  A voucher is a simple thing.  You're going to get this chit in the mail if you are 55 years or younger by the time you get to qualify.  And everybody will be off of Medicare automatically.  Everybody's off.  You can buy back in with that chit if you can afford to buy back in.  Or you can buy private insurance if you can afford with that chit.

     But every study has shown -- every study has shown -- the reason why they're doing it is they need to save a lot of money for these tax cuts.  Here's what it means.  The first one of these they passed in the House of Representatives, which passed overwhelmingly, and Romney said he would sign into law had he been President.  It would increase the yearly fee for the same health care you're getting now by $6,400 a year out of pocket.  That's the Congressional Budget Office, the referee, the referee that Democrats and the Republicans acknowledge.  They went ahead and passed it anyway.  Romney said he would sign it.

     Then when that got no traction because of guys like Bill Nelson literally stopping it in the Senate and they realized it was so unpopular -- (applause) -- then what happened is they came along with a new program.  It's still the same voucher.  The voucher system works a little different.  But without going through the gory detail with you, it's still going to cost seniors tens of thousands of dollars.

There are three studies, the one of which, the Harvard study said it would cost somebody 54 years old a total of sixty grand more to have the same Medicare, the same coverage Medicare gives them now over their life of Medicare.  A new study at Kaiser, you guys know Kaiser, you read it, Kaiser came out today and said it was going to in fact -- you would in fact have -- everybody going on Medicare, if it was in place now, would cost you about $120 a month more than you now pay for the same health care you're getting -- now.  That's if it went into effect.  That's what the Kaiser Family Foundation says.  This is not Joe Biden.  They found that the voucher plan like the one that's being proposed, today more than 90 percent of Floridians on Medicare would have higher premiums.  The average premium increase for seniors -- the average premium increase for seniors would be over $200 per month or $2,400 a year.  Folks, this is a pea-in-a-shell game.  No matter how you cut it, their combined massive tax cuts for the super wealthy are going to cost seniors a lot of money out of pocket.

     And look, and put -- and it's going to put great pressure on your kids and your grandkids.  The one thing that I have a problem with from our friends on the right -- and I like Congressman Ryan, and I do like him. But Congressman Ryan talks about we've got to save this for my generation, his generation and so on.  Let me tell you something, like a lot of you, when my mom and dad got sick, I had the great honor of being able to take them into my home and care for them.  My dad, who worked his whole life, was a hard-working man and never, never, never did anything other than work.  My dad, when he was in hospice, lived with me for six months, his last six months; and I finally convinced my mom to move in with me.  She wouldn't because when she was my age, my whole -- the entire life of my growing in a three-bedroom home in Mayfield, in Wilmington, Delaware, we had for those 19 years we were in that house, there was at least -- I believe there was only four years we didn't have a relative permanently living with us who needed help.  And my mom swore she wasn't going to move in.  But finally we convinced mom to move in.

     And let me tell you something, like all of you, you've probably found the same thing with your moms and dads, the one thing these guys don't get is there's not a son or daughter worth their salt that if mom or dad was in need in terms of their health or any economic need, they wouldn't make sacrifices with their own family, their children and themselves, to help mom and dad.

     I remember we used to lie like the devil to my mom, who was a smart woman.  She had Social Security and something left from the sale of her home, and we'd go up and tell the druggist, look, whatever the price is, tell her her prescription drug benefit covers it.  Here's the credit card.  No, because you know -- you know about us.  Too much pride.  My mother would not have her children pay more.

     So when these guys say they're cutting benefits for seniors, what do they think -- how do they think that's going to help kids?  Those kids are going to go out there and they're going to make up the difference if they're worth their salt, and they are.  They're from the families like we're all from.

     And so, folks, it's time for these guys to quit hiding the ball.  They say they value the middle class, well, my dad used to have an expression, when someone would come up to my dad and say, Joe, let me tell you what I value.  He'd look up and say, Charlie, don't tell me what you value.  Show me your budget, I will tell you what you value.  I will tell you what you value.  (Laughter and applause.)

     So folks, let's take a look at their budget.  Let's take a look at what they value.  On taxes, Governor Romney wants to maintain the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent.  We want to maintain it for 98 percent of the American people.  (Applause.)  They want to -- they're holding it hostage.  They say we can't give a cut to the middle class unless we take care of the top 1 percent.

     Ladies and gentlemen, let me put this in perspective, the top 2 percent of the Bush tax cut, $800 billion of that tax cut goes to people with a minimum income of $1 million.  That's a fact.  Five hundred billion dollars of that tax cut goes to 120,000 families in America.  Now all the national press is with me.  You will not see one correction on what I just said to you.  It's a fact -- 120,000 families, they want to continue to be able to get a half-a-trillion-dollar tax cut over the next 10 years.

     And on top of that -- on top of that, the Romney $5 trillion plan gives those same people another $250,000-a-year tax cut.  What they won't tell you also is how they're going to pay for it.  You heard in the debates because the experts point out that there's no way to pay for it -- he says what I'm going to do to pay for this tax cut is I'm going to cut all those exemptions for the wealthy guys out there.  Ladies and gentlemen, there are not enough exemptions for the wealthy guys.  The reason why -- your kids' taxes are going to go up 2,000 bucks a year if they have a child is because they got to cut all those -- those so-called tax loopholes like the mortgage deduction and everything for people making less than $150,000 a year.  That's why it goes up even though they get a tax cut.  On balance, it goes up.

     And they say, no, no, no, that's not true.  Well, you heard in my debate, you heard in the two debates with the President, the moderator or the President said, well, Governor, can you tell me one loophole you're going to eliminate.  (Laughter.)  Seriously, think about this.  They can't name one.  Not one will they name because, folks, it doesn't work.

     They go on and they cut Medicaid by $800 billion.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  No!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Millions -- billion dollars over 10 years by denying cutting the benefit they give to the states, the portion they gave to the states -- say you're on your own.  That's 19 million people going to be thrown off of Medicare.

     How many of you know someone in a nursing home who first had to sell all his or her property in order to qualify?  And then the only reason they're there now is because of Medicaid.  They're going to get kicked -- where are they going to go?  Where are these -- these aren't poor folk, and the poor folk deserve help.  These are middle-class people who broke their neck their whole lives, and the only thing they have is access to that home.

     Ladies and gentlemen, middle-class children with disabilities like autism, Down syndrome, families are going to lose the benefit.  They decimate education.  They eliminate all the help to get to college -- a $2,500 tax cut your kids are using to try to help your grandkids and kids get into college.  They cut Pell grants for working-class families.

     Look, instead of signing a pledge as they have, including the nominees, to a guy named Grover Norquist that --

     AUDIENCE:  Booo!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That's what they did, by the way.  No, there's actually a pledge signed.  It says, we will not raise one single solitary penny in taxes, even for people who are making millions of dollars who don't need the tax cut, who don't -- and are not even asking for it.  I come from a wealthy little state of Delaware.  We have a high per-capita income.  I found out in my years in the Senate, wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor people.  (Laughter.)  And it's time that they step up and contributed a little bit more.

     Instead of signing a pledge to Grover Norquist, they should sign a pledge to the middle-class people of this country, saying we're going to level the playing field.  We're going to give you a fair shot again.  (Applause.)  That's what we're going to do.

     So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to get out of here, but first of all I'll tell you what we're going to do.  On education we're going to continue to improve and fund education.  We're going to maintain those tax cuts to help your kids and grandkids get to college.  We're going to recruit 100,000 new math and science teachers so we remain the best in the world.  (Applause.)  We're insisting on higher standards.  And because we believe, as my mother used to always say, she said, Joey, children tend to become that what you expect of them.  We expect a lot from our children and they should expect a lot from us.  (Applause.)

     Second, on jobs, we're going to create a million new manufacturing jobs, help businesses double their exports.  How?  Stop giving tax breaks to companies that go overseas; give tax break to companies that come home, create jobs here.  (Applause.)  There are over 600,000 high-tech manufacturing jobs available in America today without the skills available.  That's why we tied them with up community colleges, so you walk out of the community college into a good-paying manufacturing job.  (Applause.)

     Ladies and gentlemen, on energy, we're going to cut our oil imports in half.  We've already cut it more than any administration has in 16 years.  And it's all of the above:  oil, clean coal, natural gas, renewable resources -- wind, solar, biofuels -- and conservation.  These guys even voted against the bill that the Senator passed and the President pushed, which doubles mileage on automobiles by the year 2024, saving $1.7 trillion at the pump and 12 billion barrels of oil.  (Applause.)

     Ladies and gentlemen, on taxes, we've cut taxes $3,600 so far for middle-class families, and we're going to make permanent the tax cut -- permanent the tax cut for the middle class.  And we're going to ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more.

     And lastly, we're going to reduce the deficit.  We've already laid out a plan for $4 trillion.  We've already cut $1 trillion in the debt over the next 10 years.  And we're going to ask the wealthy there to pay a little more, too.  You know why nothing has happened?  If you notice when Romney was asked by the moderator, if you could bring the budget -- reduce the budget deficit and it required any new revenues, would you support it, his answer was no, under no circumstances -- none.

     Ladies and gentlemen, and as we end this war in Afghanistan, that will result over the next 10 years of savings of $825 billion.  We're going to bring half of that to bring down the debt and the other half to begin to build American roads, American businesses, American schools.  (Applause.)  Invest here in America.

     Folks, look, it's a basic proposition -- it's all about expanding the middle class and giving them a little bit of peace of mind -- a little bit of peace of mind.  They got crushed by the recession of 2008.  And the Romney and Ryan plan, it's all about the same old thing.  The Governor said the first thing I'll do is shred the regulations that in fact were placed on Wall Street and the banks; let them write the rules again.  No, that's literally what he said.  He didn't say literally write the rule, he said, shred the regulation, do away with the new regulations on those banks; continue these massive tax cuts which amount to over $2 trillion for people who make $1 million or more.

     Folks, we've seen this movie before.  We know how it ends.  It ends in a catastrophe for the middle class -- 9 million jobs lost, $16 trillion in lost wealth for middle-class families watching the equity in your homes.  The price in 2006 for homes here was about $240,000 if I'm not mistaken.  Now, it's averaged about $86,000.  A lot of you have been here awhile.  You planned on that equity in your home, in your retirement home.  You planned on that equity, maybe for yourself or maybe for your kids.  It's up in smoke.

     Tens of thousands of good people back in the states and cities you come from, they didn't do a thing wrong and never missed a mortgage payment.  And all of a sudden, they find because two guys up the block had some of those wacky mortgages and they got foreclosed on, the value of their house is now upside down.  They lost tens of thousands -- in some cases, hundreds of thousands -- of dollars.  That's how they planned on doing what I did, borrow against that to send their kids to college.  They planned on that for their retirements, so they wouldn't have to rely on their children.

     All of this resulted in the Great Recession of 2008.  And we will not go back.  As I've said, we have a different vision, a different value set.  Unlike Romney and Ryan, we don't see the American people in terms as they talk about it, makers and takers.  That's how they talk about.  In a major speech that Ryan gave to The Spectator, he said 70 percent of the American people are makers and 30 percent are takers.  Governor Romney, in that tape that's now become famous, said 47 percent of the American people -- which I resented, quite frankly -- are unwilling to take responsibility of their own lives.  That was his quote.

     Well, folks, the American people should worry about that, because he doesn't even understand who half of America is.  They were my mom and dad who broke their neck their whole life.  They're millions of people working and paying their payroll taxes and property taxes and sales taxes at an effective rate higher than Romney pays his federal taxes.

     Ladies and gentlemen, they're the people like some of you maybe in this room, but a lot of people you know not in this room who in fact all they have now is their Social Security and they don't pay any taxes on it.  And they shouldn't have to pay any taxes on it.

     They're also the 68,000 warriors that are traipsing through those god-awful mountains in Afghanistan.  I've been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq 20 times.  They're not paying taxes, because they should not have to pay tax on that salary.  (Applause.)

     That 47 percent are the people who are the heart, the soul, the spine of America.  How many of you in this room are veterans?  (Applause.)  Well, we owe you.  And I think you'd agree with me that this generation -- my son's generation and he spent a year in Iraq -- this generation has been incredible.  They have stepped up.  Since 9/11, over 2,800,000 of them have signed up, knowing they were going to -- over 2,200,000 have strapped on those boots and gone to Iraq and Afghanistan.

     We only have one sacred obligation.  I suspect the vets would agree with me in here.  We've got a lot of obligations to our children, to the elderly, to our schools, et cetera -- only one sacred obligation, and that's to equip those we send to war and care for them when they come home.  (Applause.)

     Ladies and gentlemen, we have to honor that sacrifice.  (Applause.)  Bill and I can tell you, when you go to Afghanistan or Iraq, one of the most moving things that occurs is the first time -- I guess my sixth or seventh trip in Iraq, and a full colonel as we were getting to the C-17 to get out of Iraq said to me, Mr. Vice President, permission -- permission -- to board a Fallen Angel.  They refer to our warriors when they die in theater as angels, Fallen Angels.  And they brought in a flag-draped casket and strapped it to the floor on that C-17, turned it into a cathedral.  And all we could think about -- and it happened more than once with me -- is about the family waiting at the other end.

     Ladies and gentlemen, every single morning I check the number of dead and wounded as a consequence of these two wars.  As of this morning, 6,500 Fallen Angels, 50,010 wounded -- many of them, close to 25,000 with wounds that require extensive medical care the rest of their lives.

Those of you guys and women who were in Korea and Vietnam, over 50 percent of the wounds suffered in Afghanistan and Iraq, if they had been suffered in Korea or Vietnam, they would have been dead.  But because of the so-called Golden Hour and the triage capability today, they're alive.

But they will need our help the rest of their natural lives.  And we owe their families an overwhelming debt.  We must never forget their sacrifice and always keep them on our care and our prayer.  And, ladies and gentlemen, these are the men and women who really are the backbone of this country.  (Applause.)

     The American people -- let me conclude by saying to you that the American people are so much better, so much stronger, take so much more responsibility, neither Congressman Ryan or Governor Romney give them credit for.

I honestly, and I've served with eight Presidents, I got elected when I was a 29-year-old kid to the Senate.  I've never seen two candidates for the highest office in the land who are more negative about the state of the country, more negative about the prospects for the future, and have less faith in the willingness of the American people to accept responsibility.

     They talk about -- the phrase that's been interjected into the public realm the last four years, the culture of dependency, that's who those 47 percent of the people are, they think.  I don't recognize the country they're talking about.  Not where I come from, not where I live.  How could they have such a profound misunderstanding of the American people?

     Ladies and gentlemen, this election is about a lot.  But it's also about who we are as a country.  And I've got news for Governor Romney and for Congressman Ryan:  They are dead wrong.  America is neither dependent nor are we in decline, period.  (Applause.)  And further, I will say to my two colleagues what I say to every foreign leader I have had the privilege of meeting with, negotiating with, or taking issue with:  Gentlemen, it's never, never, never a good bet to bet against the American people.  (Applause.)

     So, ladies and gentlemen, we need you.  We need you.  We need your help to win the state of Florida.  And we win the state of Florida, this election is over.  This election is done.  (Applause.)  So go out there now and vote.  We need your help.

     God bless you all and may God protect our troops.  Thank you.

                                           END                              1:09 P.M. EDT