This from the pool report, written by a reporter with the Staten Island Advance and distributed by the White House.
November 2, 2009
Tom Wrobleski
Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n
Vice President Joseph Biden spoke at a fund-raiser lunch for Reps. Michael McMahon (NY-13) and Scott Murphy (NY-20) at the Harvard Club in Midtown Manhattan.
The event was held in the Biddle Room on the third floor. About 100 people were in attendance.<\/p>\n
There was no big news.<\/p>\n
Among the announced guests were Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Staten Island Democratic lawmakers state Sen. Diane Savino, Assemblyman Matthew Titone and Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer.<\/p>\n
Biden entered the room with McMahon and Murphy. The vice president arrived later than scheduled after campaigning for Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate in the NY-23 race upstate.<\/p>\n
Biden said he \u201cgets to campaign a lot\u201d and said of McMahon and Murphy: \u201cThese guys are about the pick of the litter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden, who began serving in the Senate when he was 29 years old, when Nixon was president, said that he had never seen a president inherit \u201cso many critical problems\u201d as Barack Obama had.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the reason why we\u2019re here,\u201d Biden said. \u201cBecause, you know, there\u2019s not many opportunities you have to have people of the caliber of these two guys. These are serious players. Serious people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the two \u201ccould do any job in government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden said of his endorsement: \u201cHopefully it\u2019s of some added value, but who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said: \u201cThe reason I like both of these guys is I think their quest to make sure we have decent-paying jobs, green jobs, good jobs, non-exportable jobs, starts in their gut, and works it way to their head and through their heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the lunch was \u201cnot the first time Scott and I have hung out together at campaign events, in his district and here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the 2006 and 2008 House races were about people looking for change \u201cand not incremental change.\u201d<\/p>\n
“This is an opportunity here to turn the corner,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n
Biden defended the actions the Obama administration had taken to stop the economic downturn, which Biden called \u201cthe most difficult since the Great Depression.\u201d
He said upon taking office, Obama and others talked about whether to declare a bank holiday. \u201cThat\u2019s literally what were talking about,\u201d Biden said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to forget where we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
With tens of thousands of jobs lost and middle-class Americans losing their homes, savings and 401K accounts, Biden said, \u201cIn the faces of these crises, we knew we had to act.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the least popular action was the bank bailout. Biden quipped that it would have been more popular to tell Americans \u201cwe were going to save rattlesnakes in Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if Obama had failed to act, he said, \u201cThere would have been a depression, not a recession.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he knew what Republicans were against when it came to Obama\u2019s fiscal policies, but \u201cI haven\u2019t figured out what in the heck they\u2019re for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden said the stimulus is \u201cbeginning to work,\u201d with jobs saved and \u201cmoney coming back into the Treasury.\u201d He said the country has been \u201cpulled back from the economic brink,\u201d and that Americans are now talking about \u201cthe shape of the recovery,\u201d not further losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth of the matter is, we\u2019re movin\u2019,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI\u2019m absolutely confident we\u2019re coming out of this recession. We\u2019re going to come out of this stronger and better positioned than we ever have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden said that $9 billion in stimulus spending in New York state had led to saved jobs, and improved roads and bridges. He said that administration tax breaks had given middle-class earners another $60 to $80 more in their paychecks every month, and that extended unemployment benefits had also aided Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere would they have been without that money?\u201d Biden said. He said that property taxes in New York and around the country would have \u201cskyrocketed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth of the matter is, the Recovery Act is working,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n
He said the administration is focused on helping the middle class through the hard times. \u201cIt\u2019s all about giving them a shot,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n
Biden said difficult times are still ahead but that he expected the recovery to pick up steam in the first quarter of 2010. However, he said it would take \u201cthe better part of a year and beyond to recoup those lost jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the administration would continue to look to continue to improve things by tackling problems in energy policy, education and health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe meant what we said by change,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWe mean it. We mean it. It wasn\u2019t merely a slogan.\u201d<\/p>\n
On energy, he said \u201cthe very people we\u2019re sending hundreds of billions of dollars to are the very people who are funding the very terrorists who are trying to kill my son in Iraq, trying to kill people right now across the world, and actually took down the Towers here.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Republicans, he said: \u201cWhat is the alternative? Give us one, other than \u2018drill, baby, drill.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of the country as a whole, Biden quoted poet William Butler Yeats: \u201cAll\u2019s changed. Changed utterly, and a terrible beauty has been born.\u201d He said lawmakers now have to grasp that opportunity for change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys get it,\u201d Biden said of McMahon and Murphy. \u201cThere are no longer any small-bore issues out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cWe need people who think big, who understand this,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWho are willing to make the difficult kind of votes they have to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy, who has U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand\u2019s old seat, said it was \u201ca great honor for Mike McMahon and I to host the vice president today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy said he \u201cplanned to lean heavily\u201d on McMahon for transportation and infrastructure help for his district. McMahon is on the House Transportation Committee.<\/p>\n
McMahon introduced Biden and said it was a \u201cthrill\u201d to be there with him. He said Murphy had \u201cbrought a great resume to Washington as an investment banker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy is on the Agriculture Committee. McMahon joked, \u201cWe don\u2019t have much agriculture on Staten Island, but I wish we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Biden, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re out there fighting for us.\u201d He called Biden \u201ca son of Delaware and an Amtrak rider,\u201d and \u201ca great son of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
McMahon said that he and Murphy are among the Frontline Democrats, who get extra fund-raising and campaign help from the national party.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gotta work very hard to hold onto our seats,\u201d McMahon said.<\/p>\n
McMahon said that \u201cour government has done nothing more important than pass the stimulus,\u201d which he said had translated into \u201cjobs and jobs and jobs\u201d for New York state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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