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Biden defends Obama tax-cut plan in Wash.

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[October 20, 2008]  TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Sunday that a Barack Obama administration would help the middle class by cutting its taxes, answering Republican claims that Obama's plan represented redistribution of wealth.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Saturday likened Obama to the socialist leaders of Europe, saying the Democrat wanted to "convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington."

In response, Biden on Sunday repeatedly linked McCain to President Bush's tax policies, saying that the wealthy and big corporations have received millions of dollars in tax cuts that could have gone to the middle class and small businesses.

"It's not just because it's fair, it's what makes the economy go. The rich do fine when the middle class is going," Biden told an audience at a rally with Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and other state Democrats vying for office. Thousands of supporters filled Cheney Stadium in this heavily blue-collar region about 40 miles south of Seattle.

"John McCain has been a party to the most significant redistribution of wealth in American history and it has been all the wrong way," he said. "There's not one fundamental economic issue that John McCain disagrees with George Bush on."

He cast McCain as someone who believes in "trickle down, government is bad, markets are right" economics.

"What John is proposing and what's been going in the last eight years are virtually no different," Biden said.

Biden noted Sunday's endorsement of Obama from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and said there should be "no more questions" about his running mate's ability to lead the country.

"Barack Obama will be a commander in chief we can all respect," Biden said.

He also went after McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for a comment this week during a fundraiser in North Carolina that she loved visiting "pro-American" parts of the country.

"One-hundred-and-one of this state's soldiers have given their lives, have died for their country, so don't let anyone, not even indirectly, imply that there's one more patriotic part of the country than another part of the country," Biden shouted to the crowd. "It doesn't matter where you live, it doesn't matter your color, it doesn't matter your religion; we're all Americans."

[Associated Press; By MANUEL VALDES]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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