We can add another one to the long list of Joe Biden’s gaffes. While on a campaign stop at a rally for Senate candidate [mc_name name=’Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B001259′ ] in Iowa yesterday, Joe Biden admitted what most of us on the Right already know: the Obama economy has been horrible for the middle class. The Washington Free Beacon caught it, and here’s the most important part:
“But you know the truth: The middle class is still in trouble,” Biden said. “You don’t have to know the numbers, you can feel it. You can feel it in your bones.”
[…]
“According to all the statistics, all the economic policy institutes, and all these groups that are outside experts in the economy, the gross domestic product means the nation grew over the last ten years by over 25 percent, and productivity went up over 30 percent,” Biden said. “But middle class wages went up by only 14 cents. Hear me? 14 cents. You know it. You don’t have to know the number, but you know. The middle class has been left behind.”
As the Daily Caller notes, the Vice President appears to be referring to this study from the Economic Policy Institute. Two key findings from the study:
- During the Great Recession and its aftermath (i.e., between 2007 and 2012), wages fell for the entire bottom 70 percent of the wage distribution, despite productivity growth of 7.7 percent.
- The weak wage growth over 2000–2007, combined with the wage losses for most workers from 2007 to 2012, mean that between 2000 and 2012, wages were flat or declined for the entire bottom 60 percent of the wage distribution (despite productivity growing by nearly 25 percent over this period).
Joe Biden told the crowd more than this, though, and fortunately for us, the WFB has video of the full gaffe:
The irony here is that he told us all this while campaigning to get Democrat [mc_name name=’Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B001259′ ] elected. Iowans should take note that Joe Biden is asking them to send a member of the same party as the administration that has presided over all these troubles for the middle class. It’s also worth reminding people that Braley is of the same party that has essentially shut down the Senate these last four years, especially since control of the chamber could hinge on the results of this race.
Instead of electing more of the same, Iowans have a chance to send conservative Republican Joni Ernst to Washington this November. She needs all the help she can get to win this fight.
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