Vice President Joe Biden went on Meet the Press Sunday. The good news is that he believes that they have the votes in the Senate to pass the New Start treaty regardless of Senator Mitch McConnell’s partisan stand. Biden also explained the why and how the Middle Class tax cut deal was made:
By the — we did go to the mat. We did go to the mat. We went through every — I went into a total of 130 races out there campaigning for Democrats . Every single race I made this case. Here’s what happened. We got to the end, we couldn’t get it done, and we had to make a decision: Were we going to let the middle -class tax cuts expire? Let me remind everybody, the House passed middle -class tax cut only. It got to the United States Senate , we supported that provision, and the Senate could not pass it. So now we’re left with, do we let those folks who are going to bed tonight staring at a ceiling wondering whether they’re going to be in that same bed next month, or those two million people who already lost their unemployment insurance this month, seven million more losing it next month, and economic uncertainty occur? Life is a matter of really tough choices.
Vice President Biden also talked about his role as “negotiator-in-chief”:
Well, by the way, you know, every — I, I, I get asked that a lot lately since this worked. That’s been my role from the beginning. For example, I’ve repeated — I’ve met with — I, I’m the guy that’s gone up on the important issues to the House , and I’m the guy that goes — I’m vice president of the United States . They know when I speak, I speak for the president. So last year, everybody said, ” God , you — you know, if Rahm Emanuel were here, he would have been the one going up to the House and the House caucus.” Not true. It would have been me, whether he were here or not. Just like it was last year. On three important occasions, I was the guy that went to the House to try to sell them, and in two cases sold them, on what to do. And look, I have — one of the things that matters in this town, and you know it as well as I do, your word matters. There’s not a single Democrat or Republican who’s ever worked with me that will not look you in the eye and say, ” Biden has never, ever, ever broken his word.” So that’s why I’m able to go up there. I don’t always succeed, but I like these guys, they’re my friends. I’ve got — a lot of these Republicans are my friends.
You can read or watch the entire Meet the Press episode here.