Vice President Joe Biden, Barack Obama's envoy to the white working class, revved up a crowd of South Florida retirees Friday.
Speaking at the blue-collar retirement community of Wynmoor Village in Coconut Creek, Biden hammered at the theme of "economic security for America's seniors" and ripped into Republicans.
"Theres no question that the aging of the baby boomers puts new pressures on Medicare and Social Security," the Delaware Democrat told an overflow crowd of 600 residents aged 55-plus.
"With the number of seniors doubling by 2040, the question is: Are we going to strengthen and sustain these programs, now and for the future?" Biden challenged. "Or will we use these challenges as a pretense to do what many have been trying to do since the beginning -- dismantle them?
"The American people won't be fooled. They know there's a fundamental difference between us and the Republicans. We believe in strengthening Medicare. They don't.
"Make no mistake, if Republicans in Congress and their amen corner of Romney, Santorum and Gingrich get their hands on the White House, they will end Medicare as we know it," Biden declared.
Republicans respond that they, not Democrats, are committed to saving Medicare in the face of the president's health-care overhaul, passed two years ago Friday.
The GOP-led House on Thursday voted to delete a central component of the Obamacare law: the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel empowered to make changes to Medicare.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Bradenton, who sided with the majority in the 223-181 vote, said, No group of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats should be tasked with deciding what constitutes necessary care for our nations seniors."
Slashing at the GOP presidential front-runner, Biden said, "Mitt Romney supports something the Republican leaders in Congress call 'cut, cap and balance.'
"Of course, nobody knows what it means and thats exactly what they intend. Because like so many of the most damaging things, it looks and sounds innocuous. So, lets cut through it and say it in plain English.
"The 'cut' is cutting Social Security. The 'cap' is putting a cap on what we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay in taxes.
"And the 'balance' is balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and middle-class Americans," Biden railed.
"When these guys cut Social Security and voucherize Medicare, theyre not saving the next generation. Theyre thrusting the burden on the next generation. Theyre making it even harder for the middle class at a time when we know, if we want our economy to be strong, the middle class has to be strong."
Biden is regularly dispatched to represent the administration in communities of the white working-class -- a group that has been turned off by modern-day Democratic Party liberalism.
Today's trip to Coconut Creek was another in a series of such campaign stops this month.
Fred Michael, property manager for the 8,500-resident Wynmoor community, said most of its residents are middle-class retirees who labored in the trades.
Conservatives say Biden's gambit will only have limited success in holding what used to be the Democrats' base.
For all of Joe Biden's nostalgia about the blue-collar virtues of his hometown [Scranton, Pa.] the coal mines shut down years ago and many in the white working-class have been drifting to the Republican Party," Wall Street Journal political writer William McGurn observes.
Freddy Etter, a Wynmoor resident and retired plumber, described himself as an independent who doesn't vote according to party labels.
"I'm open-minded," Etter said, adding that he came out Friday at the behest of his girlfriend, "a big Democrat."
Marsha Jonsson, a retired executive assistant in the printing industry, called herself a lifelong Democrat. Anticipating Biden's speech, she said, "There's not one Republican who can measure up."
Like Etter and Jonsson, the crowd at Wynmoor was heavily comprised of Northeasterners, almost all of whom were white and Jewish retirees.
Accompanied by U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fort Lauderdale, the vice president alternated between conciliation -- calling GOP budget chief Paul Ryan "a smart, decent guy" -- and confrontation.
"This is not your father's Republican Party, and not even Romney's Etch A Sketch can change that. They won't budge a single inch on the budget in pursuit of a trillion-dollar tax cut for the wealthy," Biden said to polite applause.
But Biden steered clear of harsh partisan attacks and the malaprops that occasionally dot his speeches.
And he left the crowd singing his praises afterward.
"I'd listen to him again," said one senior who declined to be named.
The most robust cheers of the afternoon came whenever Bill Clinton's name was mentioned. The former president was loudly and spontaneously applauded the moment his image appeared on a screened video that preceded Biden's appearance.
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
