ICYMI: Joe Biden and the Truth

By Jack Kelly
October 3, 2008

"All you have to do is go down Union street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years," said Sen. Joe Biden in the vice presidential debate to bolster his assertion he's in touch with the concerns of the middle class.

That answer suggested otherwise.

"It came as a surprise to us in Delaware that Joe Biden recently had a meal and talked with patrons at Katie's Restaurant on Union Street in Wilmington," said an email to National Review Online.

"Katie's Restaurant closed years ago. It was on Scott Street in Little Italy."

The people who fill up at his neighborhood gas station can't pay for a full tank of gas, Sen. Biden said. Sen. Biden lives in a 7,000 square foot estate on a four acre lakefront lot in Greenville, which is described as "northern Delaware's priciest area."

Sen. Biden says things which are not true with passionate conviction.

"Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch," Sen. Biden said, dismissing Sarah Palin's expressed intention to play a role in legislative affairs.

Article I of the Constitution defines the role of Congress, the legislative branch, and declares that "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided." That is the only responsibility of the vice president delineated anywhere in the Constitution. Article II describes the responsibilities of the Executive Branch. The election of the vice president is mentioned in Article II, but that Article says not a word about the powers and duties of the vice president as vice president.

Under Sen. Obama's tax plan, the wealthiest Americans will "pay no more than they did under Ronald Reagan," Sen. Biden said.

Sen. Obama wants to raise the top income tax bracket to 39.6 percent. Ronald Reagan had lowered it to 28 percent. ...

"We've spent less in Afghanistan in seven years than we spend in a month in Iraq," Sen. Biden said.
According to the Congressional Research Service, spending on the war in Afghanistan since 2001 has been about $172 billion. We've been spending a little less than $10 billion a month in Iraq.

Sen. Biden was off by a factor of about 1,700 percent. ...

While most of the things Sen. Biden said that are not true could be chocked up to ignorance . . . some were outright lies.

The greatest of these was when Sen. Biden denied Sen. Obama had said he would meet face to face with Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Sen. Biden was present at the Democratic primary debate in South Carolina in July of last year when Sen. Obama made that pledge, which he subsequently repeated several times.

"The truth matters," Sen. Biden said at several points in the debate. Maybe not so much to him.

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