Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday offered a defense of his provocative claim that if Republicans didn't support the president's jobs bill, rapes and murders would increase.
He also argued that Democrats and Republicans "just have a different set of values" when it comes to helping people in need.
"Here's what my point is: It is a fact ever since I wrote the crime bill 20 years ago, we've put to rest the notion that if you had more cops there is less crime," Biden said in a taped interview on CNN's State of the Union. "When you drastically cut the number of police in cities, which is happening all across the America, crime goes up. That is a fact."
After saying that police forces in some struggling cities have been "cut in half" in recent years, Biden added, "The more cops that are laid off, the more crime that occurs. So the question is, We have an answer. What's their answer, or do they think the federal government has no obligation?"
Pressed on whether his reference to vile crimes was introducing unfair politics into a complicated legislative issue, Biden replied, "No, this is reality. It's a little like saying we have a major flood, we think we should go in and help people rebuild their homes. They may say, 'No that's not the federal government's responsibility, or, if you do that, we ought to cut their aid to education or something.' We just have a different value set, that's all."
In a speech last week before a group of firemen rallying in Washington, Biden told them -- not for the first time -- that unless more money is provided to urban police forces, "Murder will continue to rise. Rape will continue to rise. All crime will continue to rise."