Vice President Biden kicked off his reelection tour today with a campaign stop at the United Auto Workers’ Hall in Toledo, Ohio. He claimed that the auto bailout had saved the economy and preserved the middle class. However, Biden’s main thesis was drawing a distinction between the Republican candidates and the White House:
These guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. Ours values the success in business. We’re about promoting the private sector, they’re about protecting the privileged sector. We are for a fair shot and fair shake, they’re for no rules, no accountability.
Remember what the headlines were saying a couple of years ago? It’s bankruptcy time for GM. . . . Government must act quickly to prevent collapse of suppliers. A million good jobs at stake. . . . Our friends on the other side, had started a mantra, we would make auto companies wards of the state. Governor Romney was more direct, “Let Detroit go bankrupt.” He said that what we propose is even worse than bankruptcy; it would make General Motors the living dead.
In Joe Biden’s world, government takeovers and support for failing companies constitute support for the private sector. One would think that valuing “success in business” means not bailing out the losers in an economy, but apparently not. Biden also twisted Governor Romney’s views on the auto bailout. Romney called for the government to help manage the bankruptcy of the automakers; he did not propose the death of the auto industry.
Biden concluded his speech by declaring that,
Ultimately, that’s what this election is all about, a choice between a system that’s rigged and a system that’s fair. A system that trusts the workers on the line than listens to the folks in the suits.
A system where government chooses to support some businesses with taxpayer-money is described as fair, while the alternative is regarded as rigged. That’s the reality in which the Obama administration believes.