Vice President Joe Biden joined House Democrats in lashing tea party Republicans Monday, accusing them of having “acted like terrorists” in the fight over raising the nation’s debt limit.
Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour, closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting.
“We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”
Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists,” according to several sources in the room.
Biden’s office initially declined to comment about what the vice president said inside the closed-door session, but after POLITICO published the remarks, spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said: “The word was used by several members of Congress. The vice president does not believe it’s an appropriate term in political discourse.”
Biden later denied he used that term in an interview with CBS.
“I did not use the terrorism word,” Biden told CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley.
Earlier in the day, Biden told Senate Democrats that Republican leaders have “guns to their heads” in trying to negotiate deals.
The vice president’s hot rhetoric about tea party Republicans underscored the tense moment on Capitol Hill as four party leaders in both chambers work to round up the needed votes in an abbreviated time frame. The bill would raise the debt limit by as much as $2.4 trillion through the end of next year and reduce the deficit by an equal amount over the next decade.
Democrats had no shortage of colorful phrases in wake of the deal.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) called it a “Satan sandwich,” and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) called seemed to enjoy the heat analogy, saying: “the Tea Partiers and the GOP have made their slash and burn lunacy clear, and while I do not love this compromise, my vote is a hose to stop the burning. The arsonists must be stopped.
The deal was consummated Sunday night, the text of the bill was posted in the wee hours of Monday morning, and the House was expected to vote first on it Monday afternoon or evening. But there are still plenty of concerns in both parties and in both chambers.
Liberal Democrats have had the most averse reaction to the plan, which ensures between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade without requiring any of it to come from tax increases.
Biden told Democratic lawmakers that the deal would take away the tea party’s “weapon of mass destruction” — the threat of a default on U.S. debt obligations.
“They have no compunction about blowing up the economy to get what they want,” Doyle told POLITICO after the meeting.
(Source: Politico)
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15 Responses
Why when Obama threatend a veto of the republicens plan and Herry Reid not even alowing a vote on it are not terorist but the tea party who were elected mainly to stop the spending are terorists for doing just that? If this is going to be there slogan in 2012 they will loose big time. People are expecting the tera party to hold their ground, thats why they were elected.
“This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”
1. You don’t have any money to spend. That’s why it’s called the National Debt, you Chuchem!
2. It’s our money which you’ve forced us to borrow, that you’re trying to spend. We (and our children and grandchildren ad sof kol hadoros) will have to pay it back – with interest – to the Chinese.
3. To quote another “Chuchem”: YOU’RE FIRED.
Well Joe, I would rather be a terrorist than the pey tzadik you are. If we were terrorists, YOU wouldn’t be around to talk about it!
Terrorists? Just the words of a poor loser.
The tea party is the new communist china!
Liberal are unhinged!
#2,3 , stop using republican/conservative talking points and face reality. Bush got us into this mess and Obama is getting us out of it.
I apologize if my previous comment was out of line. I certainly don’t mean CHV what it may have sounded like.
You are totally delusional if you think Obama is getting us out of it. Unemployment is over 9% we have government spending and debt in unimaginable rates. The country over the cliff thanks to liberal policies. You must be leaving in a cave, drink a hole lot of kool-aid. Wise up!
Funny how this administration won’t call muslims, who live to kill and maim Americans, terrorists but will call law makers, who were voted in to do exactly what they’re doing, terrorists.
But then again the administration is kind of desperate now that the presidents approval ratings are falling faster than Joe Biden’s hair.
#7. Check your facts, please. The national debt increased by a factor of 7 from the start of Obama’s term to now. It was partially caused by the bank bailout, caused by the mortgage implosion, which was funded by the Democrats.
Are you kidding Git Meshige? The democrats since FDR have been always in negative spending. Bush up the deficit but nothing nothing compare to obama.He raise the debt in last than 2 years $5,000,000,000,000 and he is not done. he said we needed to pass a bill to get the country working and instead the unemployed went from under 8 percent to almost
10 percent. he wants to tax and spend tax and spend; and he is not doing it with his money. People who are working he wants to take their money away to give to people who are not working. We have to help people who are unable but we do not have to help the people who are unwilling. We can’t afford to pay people for 15, 25, or 30 years for not working. Social security when start was for 65 but the average male died at 57 so he never collected. Today Boruch Hashem people live to almost 80 or more and if you do not take social security to pay for 15 years of not working we should not force our children to do. I am 5 years from retirement and I say this even though it will affect me since I don’t want to burden my children or your children.The government of the USA has turn to terrorism but its demands on people who are making over $200,000. Businesses are holding back because of taxes, benefits and the stupid national health insurance. Why do we pay for 4 years before it kicks in. Why is the bill to cost $1,000,000,000,000 if it is suppose to save money. The democrates are holding the taxpayers for ransom and it must must stop
I am no economist and don’t pretend to understand all that is going on, but what i do see is that all sides are upset about the deal. So according to my view then it must be a good deal if everyone walks away upset. No winners no losers. IY”H the American people will be the winners in the long run and the elected officials can find out about unemployment benefits first hand./
Which illustrates why effective “terrorists” learn that non-violence works, whereas violence only makes people mad at you (though it does appear Obama outsmarted the “tea party” on this one – his concessions aren’t meaningful whereas there’s are).
Most of you guys are either so partisan or so ignorant that you have lost important perspective on some fundemental truths:
1. It is the Congress, including many of the same Republicans, when your beloved George Dubya was President and who now have found religion, who voted in both the revenues and expenditures that resulted in our deficit – not some other boogey man, Republican or Democrat;
2. For many of us it is not the need to reduce the deficits that we find offensive…it is the refusal to distribute the pain by implementing revenue increases that would effect those most able to take a hit.
3. I have done yeshivah accreditation documents for two major yeshivas in the NYC metroplitan area…I know the importance of Pell grants to many bochuram and their families…I’m curious what your collective tone will be when those start to disappear or are diminished to a point of uselessness; I can’t wait to see the lobbying that will then be done by our major umbrella organizations;
4. Clinton left us with a #5 trillion surplus in 2001 – the Bush tax cuts without reductions in expenditures(voted by a Republican Congress) and two unfunded wars (suppoprtedby a TRepublican Congress) are a major part of what grew into today’s deficit problem;
5. There is not a scintella of evidence to support the view that tax cuts alone promote economic growth…it is ideoligical myth. The years under Reagan and Dubya are good evidence of that. See Profrssor Paul Krugman’s op ed piece in yesterday’s NYT…he’s, l’havdil, a Nobel Prize winning gadol on the subject;
6. Every economist I read in yesterday’s papers…every last one… said that to reduce federal spending now, at a time of near recession and high unemployment, will undoubtedly make things worse; and lastly,
7. Holding the debt ceiling increase hostage to a partisan policy objective is unprecedented…it has never happened before the Tea Party…so the terrorist hyperbole is not so off.