Biden Stands up for Veterans, Elderly Who Were Ridiculed by Mitt Romney

Disabled veteran John Hoskins gets by on $900 monthly check
from the Veterans Administration and $16 in food stamps.
'I Guess I'm One Of The Leeches On The System'

Joe Biden: The 47 percent "are elderly people who in fact are living off of Social Security. They are veterans and people fighting in Afghanistan right now who are, quote, not paying any taxes."

After the Romney-Ryan campaign instructed vice-presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz to address Paul Ryan as "Mister" rather than "Congressman," [an instruction Raddatz ignored], Biden clobbered Ryan and Romney for trashing veterans, the elderly and working families.

But it shouldn’t be surprising for a guy who says 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. My friend recently, in a speech in Washington, said 30% of the American people are takers. These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax. They are elderly people who in fact are living off of Social Security. They are veterans and people fighting in Afghanistan right now who are, quote, not paying any taxes. I’ve had it up to here with this notion that 47 percent -- it’s about time they take some responsibility here. And instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class, we’re going to level the playing field. We’re going to give you a fair shot again. We are going to not repeat the mistakes we made in the past by having a different set of rules for Wall Street and Main Street, making sure that we continue to hemorrhage these tax cuts for the superwealthy. - Joe Biden in VP debate - New York Times