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Tags: Biden | jobs | growth | economy | same-sex marriage

Biden: Romney, Republicans Lack Vision to Restore Economy

By Amy Woods | Sunday, 06 May 2012 11:23 AM EDT

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, if elected, will “need a better game plan” than the one the Republican Party is using to spur job growth, Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“What is he talking about?” Biden asked host David Gregory, referring to Romney. “How is he going to create jobs? Is he going to create jobs by continuing to undercut getting people to college? Is he going to continue to create jobs by eliminating investments in research and development? What is the plan?We’ve seen this movie before.”

Joe Biden (Getty Images)

Biden said President Barack Obama has ushered in more than two consecutive years of job growth.

“Look, this goes up and down, but there’s been a steady path — 26 months straight employment gain … but there’s a lot more to do,” he said. “There’s still a lot of people in trouble, but there’s no stagnation.”

He said the Republican Party needs to “get out of the way” of the administration’s economic-recovery efforts.

“They’re going to need a better game plan than the one they have now about how they’re going to restore the economy by going back to the policies of the previous eight years,” Biden said.

“They’re going to need a better social policy than taking the social policy back to the ’50s. And they’re going to need a better foreign policy than the one that says the Cold War is still going on.

“These guys are not hiding the ball this time,” he said of the GOP leadership. “They say they want the Ryan budget … which emasculates the very things that are going to allow us to grow this economy. It decimates people on Medicare and Medicaid.”

Biden defended Obama’s trip to Afghanistan on the anniversary of the execution of Osama bin Laden, saying the purpose of the visit was to sign a war-ending document.

“He would not have done that had the document not been ready,” he said. “I promise you, had he not done that — unrelated to bin Laden’s anniversary — he would not have gone to Kabul. This is a signature moment in this president’s administration where he did what he said he would do.”

Romney does not pass the “one threshold test” it takes to be elected president, Biden said.

“Is the individual strong, and is their character consistent with what they say they’ll do?” he asked.

On the issue of same-sex marriage, Biden said he favors it.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women…are entitled to the same, exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties, and quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that,” he said.

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