One can always count on Vice President Joseph Biden revealing a little more than what many inside the White House administration might feel comfortable with at any time. Biden brought up a phenomenal revelation on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
“The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy.”
First, it would be nice if he were to define “we.”
Second, it would be nice to understand how he factored ”everyone else” into that analysis.
At the minimum, “we” would most likely include Biden and the White House administration, including the president and all those pseudo-astute advisers and spinmeisters.
At best, “everyone else” would probably exclude those who do not support the current administration.
Transcript at RCP.
BIDEN: The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures in most of the blue chip indexes out there. Everyone thought at that stage — everyone — the bulk of…
STEPHANOPOULOS: CBO would say a little bit higher.
(CROSSTALK)
BIDEN: A little bit, but they’re all in the same range. No one was talking about that we would be moving towards — we’re worried about 10.5 percent, it will be 9.5 percent at this point.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But we’re looking at 10 now, aren’t we?
BIDEN: No. Well, look, we’re much too high. We’re at 9 — what, 9.5 right now?
STEPHANOPOULOS: 9.5.
BIDEN: And so the truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited.
Now, that doesn’t — I’m not laying — it’s now our responsibility.
So the second question becomes, did the economic package we put in place, including the Recovery Act, is it the right package given the circumstances we’re in? And we believe it is the right package given the circumstances we’re in.
We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package. The truth of the matter was, no one anticipated, no one expected that that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having distributed the bulk of the money.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No, but a lot of people were saying that you needed to do something bigger and bolder then, including the economist Paul Krugman. He’s saying — right now he’s saying the same thing again — don’t wait. You need a second stimulus, you need it now.
BIDEN: Look, what we have to do now is we have to properly, adequately, transparently and effectively spend out the $787 billion.
Properly, adequately, transparently and effectively govern may be a better idea. Responsibly too.
This Week with George Stephanopoulos / EXCLUSIVE: Biden: ‘We Misread the Economy’
Jul 05, 2009
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1 response so far ↓
Linda25 // July 7, 2009 at 6:02 am
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