Biden: Paying Higher Taxes Is Patriotic

Sen. Joe Biden, in reaching deep into a page from the traditional Democratic playbook that was once used by Walter Mondale, said on two occasions today that paying higher taxes is patriotic.

Perry Bacon Jr. of The Washington Post described his comments this way from Arkon, Ohio:

"Wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor people, we just have not asked anything of them," Biden said at small event with labor activists here. "John McCain is making fun of the fact that I said paying taxes is patriotic."

Repeating his remark that he tells people worried up about higher taxes, "It's time to be patriotic," Biden added: "We have no problem, sending our kids -- 1 percent of us -- sending our kids to war. We have no problem sending National Guard folks, two, three and four times" to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Earlier in the day, while appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," Biden said, "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

The Obama campaign has in the past said if the senator from Illinois is elected, only those earning more than $250,000 a year would experience a tax increase.

Gov. Sarah Palin had the Republican response later in the day in Cedar Rapids, Iowa:

"Raising taxes is about killing jobs and hurting small businesses and making things worse."

The McCain campaign introduced a new television ad today saying that Obama would increase the size of the federal government amid an economic crisis. "A big government casts a big shadow on us all," a voice over states in the ad, which features the image of a shadow slowly covering a sleeping baby as it describes McCain's thoughts of an Obama tax increase.

"Obama and his liberal congressional allies want a massive government, billions in spending increases, wasteful pork," the ad says. "And we would pay — painful income taxes, skyrocketing taxes on life savings, electricity and home heating oil. Can your family afford that?"