Biden tells Democrats to be proud of their work
Vice President Biden, speaking in Philadelphia on Friday morning, urged fellow Democrats to be proud of the work they did to dig out of the financial crisis, saying they should use the burgeoning recovery as proof that their policies worked - and Republicans' didn't.
"The Republican Party is going to try to claim this resurgence," Biden told House Democrats, meeting at the Society Hill Sheraton. "It's a bunch of malarkey."
But, he said, "if we don't speak up and reassert the case we made, it may stick politically. These guys are pretty good."
In a sometimes rambling speech, Biden spoke for 40 minutes (more than twice as long as President Obama did Thursday) as House Democrats wrapped up their three-day strategy session.
While the party licks its wounds from decisive defeats in November, Biden, like others who spoke here, did not offer new ideas, but instead said Democrats need to proudly stand behind the policies that rebuilt the economy.
The fight over who did that, he said, will determine what kind of ideas gain traction.
"This isn't about us getting credit," Biden said. "It's about how government policy can and did change America, and people are attempting to steal that story. ... It's our chance to set the record straight, and to build on it."
He concluded a Democratic retreat that included a swaggering speech from Obama Thursday and presentations by Gov. Wolf, Mayor Nutter, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, and others.
Along the way, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah said, there were visits to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and tours of City Hall. Also, a few dozen members visited Independence Hall. Standing where the Continental Congress met, now as a member of the 114th U.S. Congress, was "an incredibly humbling moment," said U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross.
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Biden tells Democrats to be proud of their work