Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz received a warm hug from Vice President Joe Biden, who spoke at Kingspoint in Tamarac on Friday – TamaracTalk.com.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
Vice President Joe Biden was all about the seniors of South Florida during stops to several popular senior communities on Friday.
Kingspoint residents were in for a short-notice surprise this week when it announced that the VP would be speaking at the Palace Theater in Tamarac on Friday. With only two day’s notice, residents quickly snapped up tickets on Thursday to see him.
Oh yes, tickets were free.
Earlier on Friday, Biden spoke at Century Village in Boca Raton, grabbed a bit to eat at Nestor’s At Bageland on Palmetto Park Road then headed over to a theater full of waiting seniors.
Introduced to the crowd by Congressmen Alcee Hastings, Ted Deutch, and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who later joined him on the stage while Biden spoke, the patient audience members waited over three hours to see Biden. One audience member noticeably took a quick nap in the row behind me.
Not one of them complained about the wait.
Biden touched a little on his background, the administration’s support of Israel. Most importantly, he spoke right to the hearts of retirees on Medicare and Social Security.
“The average senior would have to pay $460 a year more in taxes for their Social Security.” Biden said that Romney’s plan would not only raise taxes on Social Security but Romney and Ryan would turn Medicare into “voucher-care.”
Democrats from the Tamarac City Commission turned up to hear Vice President Biden speak. Left: Commissioners Pam Bushnell and Harry Dressler, Jack and Mayor Beth Talabisco, City Manager Michael Cernech, Commissioner Diane Glasser.
“Look, folks, as the old saying goes, we’ve seen this movie before, we’ve seen it before where they go out and (take) massive cuts for the wealthy. Go back and let the banks and Wall Street set their own rules. The last time that happened, we had the slowest job growth since World War Two. We ended up with the wealthy becoming extremely more wealthy and the middle class being clobbered. It gave us double the debt in eight years, and we found that the result was the great recession. We’ve seen it before. We cannot go back.”
Regarding the hidden videotape debacle where Romney spoke about the 47 percent. Biden pointed out that 82 percent of the people Romney was talking about pay Federal Income Tax. The 10 percent who don’t pay are retired people whose Social Security income is their only income and taxable. The rest are people making below $20,000.
“These are the people that the Republican party call dependent on the government, not willing to take responsibility for their lives. Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got news for Governor Romney. I’ve got news for Congressman Ryan. America and Americans are neither dependent nor are we in decline.”
“Never, never bet against the American people, said Biden. They will never ever fail.”