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Vice President Calls Republican Planned Cuts “Draconian”
By: Michael Locklear
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In a campaign stop speech that centered on fiscal policies, Vice President Joe Biden took aim at the Republican ticket for planned cuts he called "draconian."
Biden was in Athens Saturday, and he said Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would slash a slew of social programs and education.
Biden said it's an attempt to cut the national deficit even though the Democrats have been trying to do the same thing under the Obama administration.
"They talked about the great urgency to bring (the national debt) under control, but not once, not once did they tell you that they rejected every effort," Biden said. "Romney, Ryan, Republican Congress rejected every effort that every outside group and we offered them to cut the national debt if it contained one single dollar, one single penny in a new tax for millionaires. That's why we got no bargain. They rejected all of the arguments made."
Biden said Romney's cuts to Medicare would mean fewer benefits for 30 million people.
He added the trust fund that pays the benefits would run out of money by 2016.
Biden also said Romney plans to extend $500 billion in tax cuts that would go to 125,000 families over the next ten years.
"When you give these kinds of tax cuts, draining hundreds of billions of dollars out of the revenue source, you gotta get that money from somewhere, and you know where it comes from. It comes from you, it comes from working and middle class people."
Biden said "massive cuts" to Social Security are also in the Republican plan.
He said the plan he and President Barack Obama are proposing cuts $4 trillion from the nation's long-term debt by focusing on education and investing in America.
Biden spoke for about 25 minutes to a crowd of 675 spectators.
His stop in Athens was the second of three in a Southeast Ohio tour. Biden spoke in Zanesville Saturday morning and is expected to travel next to Portsmouth, for a stop Sunday morning.