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.

House Democratic leaders stressed that they will make middle-class economics their signature issue - though Republicans scoffed at their promises.

"It's a real head-scratcher to see the remaining Democrats in Congress take messaging pointers from President Obama after he led his party to historic losses," said Raffi Williams, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Just as Obama did in his recent State of the Union speech, local lawmakers emerged talking about middle-class economics.

Norcross said, "It's about laying a clear field for opportunity whether you're a millionaire, a billionaire, or a regular Joe going to work every day." He said Democrats want to give a fair chance to all, "not just the ones who can hire a lobbyist."

Democrats pressed similar themes last year before suffering losses at the polls, but Fattah said they were not discouraged.

"There may be elections in which our values and the numbers don't add up in the winning column," he said, but "in the long stretch of history, when you look at the major advances in the country, I would argue that the Democratic Party has been at the forefront of all of it."

He allowed, for example, that some Democrats probably lost elections because of their support for the Affordable Care Act. But he said 10 million previously uninsured people now have health coverage.

While middle-class angst is well-documented, Fattah, from Philadelphia, and Norcross, from Camden County, also represent cities struggling with poverty. Each said a "middle class" focus was still appropriate; Fattah said Democrats had long worked to strengthen "the middle class and those who aspire to the middle class."

Norcross said voters from Camden and the suburban parts of his South Jersey district all have the same desire: "Give me a level playing field and the opportunity to compete."