Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday was scheduled for a Miami speech on the importance of community colleges, but ended up delivering a rousing address on how to strengthen the middle class and renew the American dream, one that’s likely to fuel more speculation that Biden will soon enter the 2016 race for the White House.
The swirl of speculation about his entrance into the presidential race, especially at a speech in the critical swing state of Florida, wasn’t lost on the vice president.
“Look at all the press that’s here,” he said playfully at Miami Dade College. “Their interest in community college is amazing. I hope that’s what they are going to write about.”
While Biden talked extensively about the important role community college plays in helping hardworking Americans reach the middle class, he didn’t limit his remarks to education. He praised immigrants and young people and promoted his and the White House’s initiative to provide free community-college education for two years.
In order to pay for it, he called for closing a capital gains tax loophole for heirs that he said would provide $60 billion annually.
A month ago, Biden was headed down to Miami solely for a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But adding policy speeches and public events can defray the costs the party has to pay for Biden to headline the speech, and has the added benefit of highlighting the vice president’s role as he continues to weigh his 2016 decision.
On Thursday, he’ll hold an event in South Florida with Democratic Congressional Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz where he’ll talk to influential Jewish leaders about the Iran deal.
Speaking passionately and sprinkling in words of wisdom from his community-college professor-wife, Dr. Jill Biden, the vice president on Wednesday talked about his own hardscrabble roots in Scranton, Pa., and his father’s efforts to provide his family a middle-class lifestyle.
He recalled how his father, when he had to leave Scranton to find work in Delaware, looked him in the eye as a kid and told him not worry about anything, that the family would be all right.
But he noted that today’s families are having a hard time looking their children in the eye and making the same assurances. Quoting a recent poll, he said 43 percent of current families think their children are going to be worse off than they are.
“Middle-class — it’s not a number, it’s a value set,” he told the crowd. He said middle-class parents in America used to be able to own their homes, not rent them, provide tuition to their children, and guarantee their own healthcare needs are met in their senior years.
“There used to be a basic bargain in this country — that if you contributed to the productivity or the enterprise in which you work, you get to share in the profits,” he said. “We have to restore that bargain — not only in the name of fairness but because it’s in the strategic interest of the United States of America.”
Those urging Biden to challenge Hillary Clinton believe he’s a better advocate against income inequality, a theme he touched on several times during the speech.
He noted that just 1 percent of the people in America make 22 percent of the income, and argued that the greatest threat to economic growth and stability is income inequality.
But he also expressed optimism for the students in the crowd, stating that several independent studies have cited the U.S. as the best country in the world for investments.
“Your generation isn’t going to be talking about outsourcing,” he said. “You’re going to be talking about insourcing and jobs coming back and staying here.”
In order to take advantage of the opportunity, Biden said Washington needs to improve the country’s infrastructure, and help young people become the best-educated in the world by providing those who qualify two years of free community college education. That’s an issue Clinton has also played up in her campaign.
“It’s about time we level the playing field,” he concluded.
