YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Obama/Biden campaign headquarters in Chicago this morning released excerpts from Vice President Joe Biden’s prepared remarks he’s expected to give at noon during a stop at M7 Technologies.
Biden will highlight the impact of Obama’s efforts to strengthen the region’s manufacturing and auto industries, as well as bolster middle-class security for Ohio’s workers, the campaign said. The vice president will discuss the administration’s efforts to create an economy built to last – “one where hard work pays off, responsibility is rewarded and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
Biden will also draw a contrast with Mitt Romney – who has repeatedly cited his business experience as his chief qualification to be president, claiming he would use it to boost the economy, create jobs, and reduce the deficit. “
But Romney’s business strategy wasn’t about strengthening companies and creating jobs for long-term economic growth. It wasn’t about investors and workers playing by the same set of rules, and it certainly wasn’t about creating an economy built to last by rewarding hard work and responsibility and strengthening the security of middle-class families,” the campaign said in its advance of the speech.
“Mitt Romney is committed to returning to the same policies that created the economic crisis and put the economic security of the middle class – in Ohio and across the country – at risk. That’s why President Obama is running for re-election – to move our country forward because America cannot afford to go back.
Here are excerpt's from Biden's remarks as prepared for delivery:
Folks, this election is going to create a stark and fundamental choice between two different economic philosophies.
There’s Obama Economics, which values the role of workers in the success of a business, and values the middle class in the success of the economy. A philosophy that believes everyone deserves a fair shot and a fair shake, and everybody should play by the same rules.
And then there’s Romney Economics, which says as long as the government helps the guys at the very top do well, workers and small businesses and communities can be left to fend for themselves.
Nobody knows better than the people of the Valley the consequences of that kind of philosophy.
You’ve been through hell and back.
Outsourcing. Padlocked plants.
How many times have you opened your newspaper to find out another factory was closing down? And you probably knew someone who worked there too. Or maybe it was you.
When you’ve grown up in a community that’s gone through this kind of thing, you know. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
And when someone says, it’s going to get better, well, you’ve heard that before.
But folks, as you've begun to see in the Valley, things really are starting to come back. There are signs of hope in the heartland.
Jobs are starting to come back. And the ones that are coming back are the kind you can build a middle class life on. Manufacturing jobs.’
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We want to make it easier for American companies to stay in America, come back to America, invest in America, create jobs in America.
That's why we’re prepared to lower the corporate tax rate by 20 percent. That’s why we want to end -- and end now -- the practice of companies getting tax breaks for dismantling a factory and shipping it abroad.
We want tax credits for companies that dismantle factories abroad and bring them home.
What does Governor Romney want?
He wants a new tax system that says American companies that move factories overseas don’t have to pay any U.S. taxes on those factories. That’s a huge incentive to move offshore. That’s Romney Economics.
What does Governor Romney believe?
When China dumped all these cheap tires here, and we fought back and we won, Romney called it “protectionism.” Said by standing up to China, we would somehow hurt American workers. That’s Romney Economics.
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He thinks that because he spent his career as a “businessman,” he has the experience to run the economy.
So let’s take a look at a couple of things he did.
He’s raised it. So let’s take a real hard look at it.
In the 1990s, there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri. It had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later it went bankrupt.
After a couple of years, because of the way things were being run, the employees went on strike and negotiated an agreement whereby, if anything happened to the company, they would still get their health care and their pensions.
In the meantime, Romney’s management team added debt on the company. When they bought the company it had only $13 million of debt. By the time it filed for bankruptcy, its debt had increased 40 fold to over $533 million.
Even the CEO of the company said it was far too much debt for a company of that size.
I don’t have to tell you in Ohio that in the late 1990s, the steel industry hit tough times. With high payments to make on all that debt, the company couldn’t weather the storm.
And when the company finally filed for bankruptcy, they reneged on their contract with the workers. No health care, lower pensions. Everyone lost their jobs.
But not everyone got hurt. The top 30 executives walked away with $9 million. And Romney and his partners walked away with at least $12 million.
Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy?
Where I come from, past is prologue.
So what do you think he’ll do as President? "
SOURCE: Obama/Biden campaign.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.