© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
News
To contact us with news tips, story ideas or other related information, e-mail newsstaff@ideastream.org.

Vice President Biden Says Middle Class Needs Clinton and Strickland

VP Joe Biden at UAW Local 1005 in Parma

 

While Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump was giving a speech to the American Legion in Cincinnati, Vice President Joe Biden was speaking to the United Autorkers Union in Northeast Ohio. 

Biden spoke to crowds in Lordstown and Parma telling them that Democrats Hillary Clinton and Ted Strickland will work for people like them.  Ideastream’s Mark Urycki reports . .

 

While Trump and Clinton toss in applause lines to milk a crowd, Joe Biden was having none of it yesterday (Thurs).   He apologized for keeping the crowd of 200 waiting for two hours at the United Autoworkers 1005 Hall in Parma and threw out his speech so they wouldn't have to stand too long.  Anytime the crowd began to applaud or chant, he stopped them, saying he wanted to be deadly earnest.

Biden criticized U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio saying the Republican won’t share a stage with Donald Trump but he does share the same economic outlook.

“Rob Portman was the architect of George W. Bush’s economic policy.  He’s a good man but he was director of OMB.   Why the hell did we end up in this Great Recession that we had?"

Biden told the autoworkers that their union contracts helped create the middle class.  But today Republicans work for a system that mostly rewards the rich.

"This ain’t level.  There used to be a bargain in America, even Republicans agreed to it.  That is if you contributed to the profitability of the outfit you worked for you got to share in the benefits.   That isn’t happening anymore.   That doesn’t happen any more.”   

Despite the UAW’s longtime support of Democrats, the Secretary Treasurer of  local 10-05 sighed and said Trump’s opposition to foreign trade deals is attractive to many of his union members.

But the Secretary Treasurer of Local 10-OH-Five,  Joe Simonetta, said he is seeing Trump getting more support from his members than Republicans in the past.

“There’s a lot of want for Donald Trump as the guy of change and Hillary as the establishment person.  But we come out in strong support for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats because we know  if you look at their track record through time they have supported the labor movement and the middle class much more so than the Republicans.” 

Vice President Biden said Republicans claim to support the middle class but their budgets say otherwise.  He spoke in Lordstown earlier in the day.