Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration "misread how bad the economy was" but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up.
Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high."
"The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there," Biden said.
"We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package," Biden added. More jobs will be created in coming months, he said.
Biden noted that the $787 billion economic stimulus package was set up to spend the money over 18 months. Major programs will take effect in September, including $7.5 billion for broadband Internet service, plus new money for high-speed rail and the nation's electrical grid, he said.
Biden said it's premature to say whether the country will need a second stimulus package.
Misread how bad the economy was? From the dire predictions the Obama administration was making to shove the stimulus package down our throats, one would've thought that the second Great Depression was imminent. How could it have possibly been any worse than what Team Obama was telling us?
__________________
Politics, it seems to me, all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour
This is all just spin. It (the spin) will work for awhile, but in the end this stuff (stimulus and cap 'n trade) is going to have to work or its "bye-bye Obama and many, many Democrat legislators." They've got a window of time to work with, and indeed it is still early, as Biden says. But they have rammed this stuff through with essentially zero Republican support and they have absolutely not been crafting these measures as bipartisan measures (unless your view of "bipartisan" is voting for a bill crafted 100% by Democrats with no Republican inputs), and that means they are exposed big time. It better friggin' work. And in the end they are not going to be saved by their spin if it doesn't work.
I have no crystal ball and I'm not an economics expert. Nevertheless, I would bet that things are NOT going to turn out pretty for Democrats. Here's why:
1. Debt funded stimulus is a very "iffy" proposition. Basically, the theoretical economic foundation for this action -- spending your way out of an economic decline -- is based on John Maynard Keynes's economic thought. Not every economist really buys into Keynsian economic theory. Even Keynsian's will tell you that it depends on how you do it: stimulus needs to be applied judiciously. I didn't see much judiciousness in how the stimulus package was drawn up or how it was deployed, so I'm not betting that it is going to have the desired benefit. As a further consideration, however, this stimulus is bought at the cost of considerable increase in national debt, and this will definitely have a negative impact on the economy. Already China is belly-aching about using some other currency than the dollar for benchmarking (for example, maybe for how they are paid back for their purchase of US debt, so they don't get taken to the cleaners by inflation of the dollar, as a consequence of excess US government spending -- for example the stimulus package?)
2. The zeal with which the Obama administration and the Democrats are intervening in business is not a harbinger of economic recovery. The most likely outcome is that economic dilletantes are going to screw things up rather than improve things. For example, most economists would tell you that there is considerable excess capacity of automobile manufacturing facilities in the world. Does it make sense in such a context -- excess production capacity -- for the government to shore up and maintain in operation two of the least competitive automobile manufacturing companies, at the expense of the public?
3. Our current economic woes are caused by toxic mortgage assets. Until this underlying problem is solved, our economy will remain shaky and unstable. This underlying problem is not being addressed. The bank holds the mortgage on a piece of property. The bank loaned $300,000 for the property; the debtor was foreclosed; the property is clearly worth much less than the $300,000 -- say $100,000 -- but this substantial loss is not on the books and is not reflected in the bank's balance statement, while the property remains in the bank's hands. That is an unresolved and malingering problem. If I've got this wrong, please correct me, those of you who may have more insight and understanding of this than I do. The administration is too busy bailing out General Motors, making stimulus packages, and chasing cap and trade legislation to deal with the real underlying problem. Sure, it may be well to place new regulations in effect to prevent this from happening in the future . . . but what about those horses that are out there running around that escaped before you closed and secured the barn door? Hadn't we ought to do something about that, as that is a vast body of assets?
As I say . . . I am not sanguine of the Democrats's chances of making this work.
You misread the economy? Well, no shat, Sherlock. [:@]
You also misread the effect it will have on your party of clowns once their ultraliberal policies cause the total collapse of the US economy trying to fund your utopian fantasyland. The only good thing that will come of this disaster is that the Dimmocraps will once again be marginalized for decades to come, and with a bit of luck it may even spell the demise of those fools as a party.
__________________
Kevin Haendiges
NAHC Life Member
NRA Member
Wildlife Forever Member
GOA Member
Buckmasters Member
http://hunting-indiana.com
More jobs will be created in coming months, he said
1 job will be more jobs .... so far, 6 of the 18 months are gone by and not a single job created to my knowledge
but then anyone who voted BHO knew he had very very little experience, this is what ya'll wanted, voted for and got
Exactly! Ever since the stimulus was passed unemployment has been rising, and BHO STILL says that its creating jobs! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if unemployment is rising, jobs aren't being created!
__________________
Get addicted to Wisconsin wolves, smoke a pack a day
Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high."
The sad part is I bet he read that either from a script or a teleprompter.
__________________
"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
Biden: 'We Misread How Bad the Economy Was'
