Vice President Joe Biden took aim at a pair of Republican presidential candidates during a stop in Davenport today. It marked Biden’s second trip to Iowa this month. “Look, this is the third in a series of speeches I’m giving on behalf of our administration laying out the stark choices we believe the American people are going to face in November. And what’s at stake for the middle class,” Biden said.
The vice president spoke at a Davenport manufactuing plant and sounded many of the same themes he delivered in a speech in Ames on March 1. “The facts are…that the jobs that left the United States are coming back to the United States,” Biden said. “Plants that closed are opening. So folks, America’s coming back. It’s not a political slogan, it’s a reality. And it’s happening in the sector that built the middle class – manufacturing.”
Biden claimed the recovery that’s underway in the manufacturing sector is threatened by Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. “Senator Santorum voted against ending loopholes for companies that move manufacturing jobs offshore, from America offshore,” Biden said. “And, just like Mitt Romney, when asked if we should have rescued the automobile industry, he said ‘no, absolutely not.'”
Biden cited statistics indicating the American economy has added 430,000 new manufacturing jobs since January of 2010. After addressing the invited crowd at PCT Engineered Systems in Davenport, Biden traveled to Sioux City – where he met privately with campaign organizers.