Biden attacks Ryan's storyline on auto industry

8/31/12 11:57 AM EDT

AP Photo

LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Vice President Joe Biden went right at what he sees as the lies and partial truths that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have told as he spoke to auto workers here Friday.

“You heard Congressman Ryan on Wednesday night blame the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville on the president of the United States," Biden said, referring to Ryan's nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

“The one thing the congressman was right about ... it was devastating for the community and those people," Biden at the United Auto Workers union hall here, just a few miles away from the General Motors factory." But what he didn’t tell you was that plant in Janesville actually closed while President Bush was still in office. What they didn't say is, but for the sacrifices you made, and the courage of the president, all those GM plants would have closed."

“What they didn’t say at the convention is because of the auto rescue, there are 4,500 of you working here making a decent wage. What they didn’t say is GM is adding two shifts," the vice president said. "The 200,000 auto workers who’ve been added to the employment rolls would not be working. We would've lost a million jobs. GM wouldn’t have been reorganized, it would have been liquidated. Along with Chrysler."

Biden said that what Ryan didn't acknowledge in his attack on the Obama administration's role in the auto bailout is that Romney's "position was 'let Detroit go bankrupt.' He said if we stepped in to help, GM would be ‘the living dead.’"

But the auto bailout has worked, the vice president said. General Motors announced last week that a factory near the union hall will be one of to in Ohio to get a combined investment of $220 million to build the next generation Chevrolet Cruze.

“Combined, the auto companies have committed to invest billions in expansion," Biden said. But, hitting at Romney's former firm, it's "What they didn't tell you -- it's not the Bain way -- not in Mexico, not in China, not in Vietnam, but in Lordstown, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland. Made in America."

Brendan Buck, a Ryan spokesman, responded that Biden “can’t answer for this administration’s unfulfilled promises and failed record. The president inherited a troubled economy, but he’s not made it better – he’s made it worse, with fewer jobs and lower incomes for middle-class families. Like many towns across America, Janesville, Wisconsin is still waiting for the recovery the president promised.”

While Biden spent much of his speech hitting Ryan, he also attacked the Republican presidential candidate head on, citing a Rolling Stone report from earlier this week that said "Romney was willing to go to extremes to secure a federal bailout" for Bain and Company (the consulting firm) which ultimately totaled $10 million.

“You know, he is absolutely against the federal government or any government using funds to save jobs, to save industries," Biden said, before accusing Romney of hypocrisy. "He says it’s bad for business except when it comes to his business.... It was one thing when a million middle class jobs were on the line. It was another when his own financial interests and those of his partners were on the line."

Biden also got in a jab at Ryan when he noted that one of the people who introduced him was Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). Imagine, he said, "if the Ryan who got nominated last night had the heart of the Ryan we're standing with today."

Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who also spoke before Biden offered a similar line: There are two Ryans in the House of Representatives "and only one of them has a chance of ever being in the White House and that is Congressman Tim Ryan."