Politics

Biden says Ryan budget would be "devastating"

By Rodney Hawkins

June 6, 2012 / 5:46 PM EDT / CBS News

(CBS News) WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Vice President Joe Biden continued on the attack on Wednesday, saying that it is "not enough" that President Obama has created 27 months straight of private sector growth and slamming Republican alternatives to the administration's plans to boost the economy.

"It is up and it is down, but it has been constantly forward but not enough," Biden told a crowd in North Carolina about the economy. "We have to do more we have to keep fighting through this period of transition and this God awful recession we inherited."

The vice president put the blame on Republicans in Congress, saying their proposals for the economy would not work.

"The problem here isn't so much what our friends, Republican friends, refuse to do, it is what they propose to do," Biden said.

He went on to say that Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget, which he called the GOP "blueprint for the economy," would be "devastating" for America.

"He is a fine guy but I think his ideas are not nearly as fine as he is a man," Biden said after calling Ryan a "bright handsome guy from the state of Wisconsin."

"I believe the Ryan budget will have a devastating impact on America," he added. "It is as if these guys don't know what made America in the first place."

The vice president spoke at Bio-tech Medical, a company that just opened in February after receiving federal funds. This was Biden's second trip to North Carolina this year.