joe biden said he is not entering the 2016 presidential race. vice president biden ended months of speculation that he would run for president a third time after unsuccessful bids in the 1988 and 2008 races. he made the announcement in the white house rose garden joined by his wife jill biden and president obama. >> good morning, folks. please, please sit down. mr. president, thank you for inviting me to the rose garden for a minute. as my family and i have worked through the grieving process, i said all along what i've said

time and again to others. that it may very well be that that process by the time we get through it closes the window on ounting a realistic campaign for president, that it might close. i've concluded it has closed. i know from previous experience that there is no timetable for this process. the process doesn't respect or much care about things like filing deadlines or debates and primaries and caucuses. i couldn't now that do this if the family wasn't ready. the good news is the family has reached that point. but as i've said many times, my family has suffered loss, and i hoped there would come a time

and i've said this to many other families, that sooner rather than later when you think of your loved one, it brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes. well, that's where the bidens are today. thank god. bo is our inspiration. unfortunately, i believe we're out of time. the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination. but while i will not be a candidate, i will not be silent. i intend to speak out clearly and forcefully to influence as much as i can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation. and this is what i believe. i believe that president obama has led this nation from crisis to recovery and we're now on the cusp of resurgence. i'm proud to have played a part in that.

this party, our nation, will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the obama legacy. the american people have worked too hard and we've come too far for that. democrats should not only defend this record and protect this record. they should run on the record. we've got a lot of work to get done over the next 15 months and there's a lot of -- a lot that the president will have to get done. but let me be clear that we'll be building on a really solid foundation. it all starts with giving the middle class a fighting chance. i know you in the press love to call the middle class joe and i know in washington that is not usually meant as a compliment. it means you're not that

sophisticated. but it is about the middle class. it isn't just a matter of fairness or economic growth. it's a matter of social stability for this nation. we cannot sustain the current levels of inequality that exist in this country. i believe the huge sums of unlimited and often secret money pouring into our politics is a fundamental threat to our democracy. really mean that. i think it's a fundamental threat. because the middle class will never have a fighting chance in this country as long as several hundred families, the wealthiest families, control the process. t is just that simple. i believe we have to level the playing field for the american people and that is going to take access, education, and opportunity to work. we need to commit in fighting for 14 years. we need to commit to 16 years of free public education for

all of our children. we all know that 12 years of public education is not enough. as a nation let's make the same commitment to a college education today we made to a high school education a hundred years ago. children and child care is the one biggest barrier for working families. we need as the president proposed triple the child tax care credit. that alone will lead to a dramatic increase to the number of women able to be in the work force and will raise our economic standards. there are many equitable ways to pay for this. how do you pay for this? there are many equitable ways to pay for this. we can pay for all of this with one simple step. by limiting the deductions in the tax code to 28% of income. wealthy folks will end up paying a little bit more. but it's my guess and i mean this sincerely, it is my guess

they'll be happy to help build stronger economy. and a better educated america. i believe we need to lead more by the power of our example as the president has than merely by the example of our power. we've learned some very hard lessons from more than a decade of large scale, open ended, military invasions. we have to accept the fact that we can't solve all the world's problems. we can't solve many of them alone. the argument that we just have to do something when bad people do bad things isn't good enough. it's not a good enough reason for american intervention and to put our sons and daughters' lives on the line, put them at risk. i believe we have to end the divisive, partisan politics ripping this country apart, and i think we can. it's mean spirited. it's petty. it's gone on for much too long.

i don't believe like some do that it's naive to talk to republicans. i don't think we should look at republicans as our enemies. they are opposition. they're not our enemies. and for the sake of the country we have to work together. as the president said many times, compromise is not a dirty word. look at it this way, folks. w does this country function without consensus? how can we move forward without being able to arrive at consensus? four more years of this kind of pitched battle may be more than this country can take. we have to change it. e have to change it. i believe we need a moon shot in this country to cure cancer. it's personal but i know we can do this. the president and i have already been working hard on increasing funding for research and development because there are so many breakthroughs just

on the horizon in science and edicine. and we can make them real with an absolute national commitment to end cancer as we know it today. and i'm going to spend the next 15 months in this office pushing as hard as i can to accomplish this because i know there are democrats and republicans on the hill who share our passion to silence this deadly disease. if i could be anything, i would want to be the president that ended cancer because it is ossible. i also believe we need to keep moving in the arc of this nation toward justice. the rights of the lgbt community, immigration reform,

equal pay for women, protecting their safety from violence. rooting out institutional racism. at their core every one of these things is about the same thing. it's been equality, fairness, respect. as my dad used to say it is about affording every single person dignity. it is not complicated. every single one of these issues is about dignity and the ugly forces of hate and division. they won't let up but they do not represent the american people. they do not represent the heart of this country. they represent a small fraction of the political elite. and the next president is going to have to take it on. most of all, i believe there's unlimited possibilities for this country. i don't know how many of the white house staff and personnel have heard me say repeatedly we

are so much better positioned than any country in the world. i've been doing this for a long time. when i got elected as a 29-year-old kid i was called the optimist. i am more optimistic about the possibilities, the incredible possibilities to leap forward than i have been any time in my career. and i believe to my core that there's no country on the face of the earth better positioned to lead the world in the 21st century than the united states of america. washington, though, just has to begin to function again, instead of being the problem it has to become part of the solution again. let's be one america again. and at our core, i've always believed that what sets america apart from every other nation is that we, ordinary americans, believe in possibilities. unlimited possibilities.

the possibilities for a kid growing up in a poor, inner city neighborhood or a spanish speaking home. or a kid from mayfield and delaware, willow grove in ennsylvania like jill and i. to be able to be anything we wanted to be. to do anything, anything that we want. that's what we were both taught. that's what the president was taught. it was real. that's what i grew up believing. and, you know, it's always been true in this country. if we ever lose that, we've lost something very special. we'll have lost the very soul of this country. when i was growing up, my parents in tough times looked at me and would say to me and my brothers and sister, honey, it's going to be okay.

and they meant it. they meant it. it was going to be okay. but some of you cover me, i say go back to your old neighborhoods. talk to your contemporaries. who aren't as successful as you have been. there are too many people in america today, too many parents who don't believe they can look their kid in the eye and say with certainty, honey, it's going to be okay. that's what we need to change. it's not complicated. that will be the true measure of our success. we'll not have met it until every parent out there can look at their kid in tough times and say, honey, it's going to be okay. and mean it. that's our responsibility. and i believe it's totally within our power. the nation has done it before in difficult times. i've had the great good fortune and privilege of being in

public service most of my adult life, since i've been 25 years old. and through personal triumphs and tragedies my entire family, my son beau, my son hunter, my daughter ashley and jill, our whole family, and this sounds corny, but we found purpose in public life. we found purpose in public life. so we intend, the whole family, spend t me, we intend to the next 15 months fighting for what we've always cared about, what my family's always cared about. with every ounce of our being. and working alongside the president and members of congress, and our future nominee, i am absolutely ertain we are fully capable of accomplishing extraordinary things. we can do this. and when we do, america won't

just win the future. we will own the finish line. thank you for all being so gracious to jill and me, for the last six or eight months, and for our whole career for that matter. but i'm telling you, we can do so much more. i'm looking forward to continuing to work with this man to get it done. thank you. thank you all very much. [applause] >> we have more live road to

the white house coverage this week. presidential candidate senator ted cruz holds a town hall meeting in council bluffs, iowa and after the event a texas republican will take phone calls from c-span viewers. that's live friday at 8:30 p.m. eastern. saturday we're live with the democratic presidential candidates at the jefferson jackson dinner in des moines, iowa. our live coverage starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on -span. chuck boehner, who is stepping down as house speaker, said he thinks wisconsin representative paul ryan will get the support he needs to become the next speaker. speaker boehner and other members of the house gop leadership also spoke of their egislative agenda. >> today the president has on his desk a vice president

national defense authorization bill. the bill provides our troops with the resources they need to keep america safe. it meets the funding levels the president requested, yet the president has vowed to veto it. why? because he wants to stop and spend more money on his domestic agenda. it's time to put our troops first. time to stop playing political games. iranian terrorists soon are going to have access to billions of dollars as a result of the president's nuclear deal. this is no time to block funding for our troops with the critical mission that they have ahead. >> good morning, all. quickly give you a little snap shot of what we have this week. i know we have a lot going on, a lot of other issues you probably want to talk about. there are a couple bills i wapt to highlight. first one of the bills the speaker has fought his entire career for. many of you have children. it is no longer