Joe Biden: Lazy American Women to Blame for Economy-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Joe Biden supposedly said “lazy American women” are to blame for the economy because, “They sit around doing nothing, only Hillary can force them to work.”
The Truth:
False claims about that Joe Biden blamed “lazy American women” for the U.S. economy started at a fake news website and later made their way to right-wing sites.
EFT News, a website that publishes a combination of fake and factual news stories, reported that Vice President Biden made the comments at a campaign stop for Hillary Clinton:
Biden made his remarks during a campaign event for Hillary Clinton at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. “The state of our economy could be characterized by a single word: pitiful,” he argued. “We’re still battling recession, I don’t care what the official stats are saying, America is still in recession. And we’re not doing anything about it.”
He added that it was “lazy American women” who brought about the downfall of the economy, because “they sit around on their behinds, doing nothing and squandering their days away when they could be improving the country that has given so much to them.” “I’m not sure how exactly we got to this point, but we’re here and we need to move. Like, yesterday,” he said.
“Mark my words and mark them well,” he addressed the crowd. “Hillary Clinton is the only one who can force American women to go to work. This is true because of a number of reasons. First, she’s a woman herself and not just any woman; she’s a self-made woman. So you better believe what she’s saying is true and has been tried and tested in practice plenty of times.”
Biden did speak in Pennsylvania around the time that this rumor went viral, which probably helped give it legs. However, a raw video of Biden’s appearance that can be viewed here shows that he made no mention of “lazy American women.”
Biden, however, address the issue of women in the workforce. He said millions of American women were qualified to join the workforce but were unable to because of the high costs of childcare. Making childcare affordable, Biden said, would allow more women to join the work force and would ultimately help grow Gross Domestic Product (GDP):
Ladies in the audience, you realize there’s millions of Americans women completely thoroughly qualified to be in the workforce but are not there now. Why? The cost of childcare. If you live in any city in America from a small town – a small city to New York City, you have two kids, a minimum $10,700 a year for adequate child care, $22,000 a year if you live in New York City. Ladies and gentleman, child care in Pennsylvania – average cost $14,700 for a family with two kids. That’s why women aren’t in the work force.
Biden also raised the issue of fair pay for women in the speech:
You young women in here, isn’t it hard for you to believe that we’re still debating whether if you do the same exact job as a man, you should get the same pay? I mean, think about that. Think about where we are – 2016. And the debate is still whether my daughter – graduated with honors and a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania should get paid the same amount that her counterpart is paid or any of you. It’s ridiculous.
In conclusion, Biden didn’t blame women for the country’s sluggish economy. EFT News is filled with fake news stories with a right-wing slant. This report about Biden’s comments in Pennsylvania is just another example of that.