Vice President Joseph R. Biden told a group of Democrats on Tuesday that he’s known around Washington and across the country as “Middle-class Joe.”
Mr. Biden joined Los Angeles lawmakers to support Mayor Eric Garcetti’s plan to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017. The vice president, who is likely eyeing a 2016 presidential run, championed himself as a man of the people, while issuing veiled criticism toward President Obama’s economic policies.
“In a macroeconomic sense, the economy is roaring, everything is growing great [but] the truth of the matter is, a lot of folks are hurting. A lot of middle-class folks are in a stagnant position,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported.
“In the last 15 years, the middle class has been clobbered,” he said. “My [Senate] colleagues would tell you, I’m referred to in Washington and nationally as ’Middle-class Joe.’”
“In Washington, that is not meant as compliment,” he lamented. “It means that you’re not sophisticated.”
Mr. Biden agreed with the mayor’s plan, arguing that raising the city’s minimum wage will create new jobs, and increase aggregate capital available in Los Angeles by $1.8 billion, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“No one in America should be working 40 hours a week and living below the poverty level,” he said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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