(CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden had a strong message for fellow Democrats on Friday: After Election Day, expect to keep a majority in Congress.
"I'm here to tell you that on November 3, the day after this coming election, there will be in Washington, D.C., a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate," Biden said at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. He joked, "and were it not illegal, I'd make book on it!"
Paraphrasing Mark Twain, the vice president said that reports of the death of the Democratic Party have been greatly exaggerated.
Polls have shown that congressional Democrats are facing an uphill challenge this year. Biden said that a large part of that has to do with Americans blaming their problems on the people at the top.
"Many [Americans] are stripped of their dignity. And they look out there, and they focus on the only person who's there, the only one they see -- and that's the president of the United States and the Democratic Congress."
But come Labor Day, he said, Americans are going to begin to compare the two parties and see major differences.
"When they start to look at the alternative, they're going to see, and I'm going to get in trouble for saying this ... this ain't your father's Republican Party. This is the Republican Tea Party," he said to loud applause.
"The Republican Party of 2010 is the party of repeal and repeat," he added. "Repeat the old practices of the past. I believe it's out of step where the American people are. It's our job between now and the election to draw those distinctions."
Republicans have consistently hit back at Democrats, saying they are pursuing policies of big government and wasteful spending. GOP leaders argue that the American public, as witnessed in the polls and at Tea Party rallies across the country, are angry at the Democrats and want a change.
