If Biden’s words sound familiar, that’s because somebody else said them first

Vice President Joe Biden has an interesting, though not always original, way with words. And during a Wednesday campaign speech in Dubuque, Iowa, he again borrowed some intriguing lines without paying homage to the source.

Citing the plight still faced by far too many jobless Americans, Mr. Biden said: “My grandpop used to say — from Scranton — he said, Joey, the guy in Dunmore, the next town over, when the guy in Dunmore is out of work it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother in law is out of work it’s a recession. When you’re out of work it’s a depression.”

And when Ronald Reagan was successfully running for president in 1980, he said: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”

Oh well, if Vice President Biden must persist in delivering others’ words as if they were his own, he could do far worse than echoing “The Great Communicator.”

Mr. Biden could even play this variation:

An individual mandate is when Congress passes and President Barack Obama signs a massive health care reform bill. A tax is when Chief Justice John Roberts redefines that mandate. And a fiscal disaster is when that unaffordable Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes full effect.

Or, with apologies to the late, great Cole Porter:

“Congress says ‘mandate,’
The Supreme Court says ‘tax,’

Congress says ‘mandate,’
The Supreme Court says ‘tax,’

‘Mandate,’ ‘tax,’ ‘mandate,’ ‘tax,’

Let’s call the whole thing off”