Joe Biden to House Democrats: Sell mending economy to voters
Vice President Joe Biden challenged House Democrats here to do a better job of communicating to voters that the economy is on the mend - arguing that if the party canât sell the recovery, Republicans will co-opt the success of Democratic policies. Closing out the three-day Democratic retreat Friday, Biden lamented that Democrats have not gotten enough credit for pursuing economic policies that have help the country add jobs and protect middle-income earners claw their way out from a decade-long recession. Story Continued Below âTogether we made some really tough decision. Decisions that werenât at all popular and hard to explain. Hard to communicate why it was so important and the decisions had real political cost,â Biden said. âA lot of my friends and your friends in this caucus arenât here today because they had the nerve to stand up and do what they thought was right, knowing that they were going to face unrelenting political criticism.â He added, âItâs becoming clearer and clearer that that decision you made, the decisions the administration fought for the were the right ones. They worked for America.â President Barack Obama delivered a similar message to lawmakers Thursday evening, arguing that after a tough midterm election loss that saw the Senate switch to GOP control, Democrats must take more credit to defend the stimulus and Obamacare. Democrats also lost 13 seats in the House. And just like Obama, Biden took plenty of jabs at congressional Republicans. He mocked comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that the economy improved in November and December because of the âexpectation of a new Republican Congress.â Biden said the GOP is having an âepiphanyâ that focusing on the middle class is a winning political strategy. âMcConnell is a friend of mine. I get on with McConnellâ¦.[but] Mitch, itâs recovery,â Biden said. âItâs recovery that Leader McConnell likes to claimâ¦.Watch it guys, mark my worlds, the Republican Party is going to try and claim this reassurance and they are going to misrepresent that its because of policies they supported.â¦Itâs a bunch of malarkey.â Democrats, Biden said, need to fight for a narrative that the recovery occurred because of their party, saying âif we donât speak up and reassert the case we made, it might stick politically. These guys are pretty good.â But Biden also had some tough words for members in his own party who are still focused on the midterm election loss. Democrats have laid blame on the White House, poor messaging from the campaign arms and leaders in the House and Senate for the shellacking the party took, but Biden said itâs time to stop ânitpicking.â âStop nitpicking those of you who said we should have done a, b or c,â Biden quipped. âEmbrace success. Make the case. We have a chance to generate a new consensus in this country.â