Biden savages Romney on ’47 percent’

It was maybe the most glaring and inexplicable omission from last week’s presidential debate – and boy, did Joe Biden make up for it tonight.

On the first domestic policy question of the night, the vice president launched into a long and brutal attack on Mitt Romney for having derided the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay income tax – calling Romney “a guy who says 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility of their lives.”

“These people are my mom and dad,” Biden said. “They pay more effective tax than Gov. Romney pays with his federal income tax.”

Accusing Romney of criticizing the non-tax-paying soldiers “who are fighting in Afghanistan right now,” Biden continued: “It’s about time they take some responsibility here and instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist … they should be signing a pledge to the middle class saying they’re going to level the playing field.”

Ryan responded with a discourse on the economy going “in the wrong direction” and joking about Romney’s “47 percent” comments.

As Biden well knows, Ryan said, “sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”