Biden credits stimulus plan with sparking economic recovery
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/03/art.biden.0903.gi.jpg
caption="Vice President Joe Biden trumpeted the role of the stimulus package in sparking an economic recovery."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Vice President Joe Biden trumpeted the role of the administration's $787 billion stimulus package Thursday in sparking an economic recovery.
"There is a growing consensus: the recovery act is working," he told an audience at the Brookings Institute.
"Instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we are talking about the end of a recession."
The stimulus plan, enacted almost 200 days ago, "is doing more faster and more efficiently and more effectively than most people expected," he argued.
The vice president, who is overseeing the implementation of the plan, cited multiple independent analysts who claim the stimulus plan has created or saved between 500,000 and 750,000 jobs.
Economists from Goldman Sachs, he noted, believe the recovery plan added over 2 percentage points in growth to the country's gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2009.
They believe it will add 3.3 points in the third quarter, he added.
The Republican National Committee sharply disputed Biden's claims, releasing a statement characterizing the stimulus plan as a failure.
"The Democrats' rhetoric on their economic experiment doesn't match with the reality of millions of Americans remaining unemployed," the statement said. "The stimulus was an economic experiment that failed."
Most Americans remain pessimistic about the state of the economy. Nearly nine in 10 believe the country is still in a recession, according to an August 28-31 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.
Almost 40 percent of Americans believe the Obama administration's policies have improved economic conditions. Thirty-four percent believe Obama's policies have worsened the economic climate, while 27 percent believe they have had no effect.
Altogether, employers have announced over 1,070,000 job cuts so far this year - 60 percent more than at this point a year ago. The current tally is less than 200,000 away from surpassing the total number of job cuts in all of 2008.
The Labor Department's monthly jobs report, due Friday, is expected to show that the economy shed 265,000 jobs in August, slightly more than the 247,000 reported for July, according to a consensus estimate of economists compiled by the Web site Briefing.com.
The unemployment rate is predicted to rise from 9.4 to 9.5 percent.
–CNN's Jessica Dickler contributed to this report
CNN, instead of "he said, she said" coverage, why don't you quote some economists. Biden listed several independent economists, and even one (Zandi) who worked on McCain's campaign, who have made assessments and found that the Recovery Act is indeed working. And they even go on to say that without it, we may have had another depression, and most certainly would not be seeing the so-called green shoots we're seeing today. As much as the media wants to highlight the Republican side of the "debate." There's really no debate about it among economists. They say definitively that the Recovery Act (i.e., stimulus) is working.
The Stimulus = borrowing from the future in order to re-inflate the bubble that burst. If it is working, then we are just setting up another artificial financial "bubble" to just burst on us again.
Shouldn't a real long term groth plan take a long time to reap benefits? And if its done right it doesn't need to be a stupid "double or nothing" bet on some kind of short time propping up of what was bad economics in the first place.
My guess is that the stimulus money did help some, but more likley the TARP stimulus rather than ARRA. ARRA has yet to be spent.
The only was the stimulas will help is to put it back in the treasury.The Obama admin. is only giving it to the people that they want unions mobs pet projects, Biden has no clue whats going on.the same for health care they are out to destroy the seniors to save money. This is a real bad deal and they need to know it.
Biden what the... can anyone even tell there was a stimulus package??? Sure didn't help my family any. Nor has it help all those poor people out of work and desperately trying to find a decent job.
What joke! I'm no Obama fan by any means but I pray nothing happens to him otherwise we will be stuck with this idiot!
Where are those jobs? The only jobs that have been (temporarily) saved are the jobs at the dealers in the Cash for Clunkers program. That I can see. Aside from that, the government has been creating some jobs again with our money. I really do not like to see my tax money spent to create more bureaucratic positions in the Federal or State governments. The government should be cut, not expanded to return our nation to some sort of fiscal sense and responsibility.
Aw, dry up. Y'all are still adjusting to a vice president who doesn't begin every statement with "9/11! Booga booga booga!"
There is only one thing distrubing about all the negative comments. That as we recovery you cannot be selectivly excluded from that recovery. There is nothing more foul in a persons character than a lack of appreciation for what someone does for them when they could never do it for themselves.
None of us could have stopped the on set of a depression path that the previous administration set us upon. The republican candidate also demonstrated he would be woefully inept at even stablizing the financial meltdown we experienced.
Yet, all I'm reading is inappreciative garbage from people who are still employed and can't see beyond their elite noses to know they just missed a bullet.
Some people is never going to give Presient Obama credit for the recovery anyway thats there is so much flip flop over it. When the economy was really bad and banks was failing and people started to lose jobs G. Bush got blame for that and rightfully so he was President for 8yrs. When uemployement started to rise even more Obama got blame and is still getting blamed even though he did inherited it and Yeah blame him too he is President now. But now that banks are paying back loans, the cash for clunkers was a sucess, Gm is doing better and the housing market is better and wall street is better he dont get credit for that. So when things are bad the President gets blame for it but when things are in a positive mode at least looking better oh! He dont get credit for that, thats why some people will never give this President credit for anything.
Try as our neocon friends might, they cannot spin the continued positive economic news into bad news. As Biden says, instead of talking about going into a depression we are now talking about coming out of a recession. But I do have to chuckle that the very idiots that got us INTO this mess now want to criticize the way we are getting out of it. Unreal
This is why you never ever associate yourself with a political party. both parties are led by and staffed by morons who think only of their agendas and not what is best for the country
Unemployment skyrocketing, and not even showing true number, since many have stopped even looking for a job. American debt is now going to be paid off by kids and grandkids. America has nationalized banks and car industries. ARE YOU INSANE? Stimulus is a pork-filled reward for left-wing backers. This administration is nuts. Absolutely nuts.
where is the spark, ONLY IN YOUR MIND,
Unemployment still rising, companies still closing, people losing houses, people out of work, people cannot afford to eat, WHAT SPARK
Democrates LIES about RECOVERY, Democrates RAISE TAXES,
Obama makes UNKEPT PROMISES.
ALL LIES and Biden PROMOTES MORE LIES.
Shortly after President Obama took office, he told us that it was likely unemployment would exceed 10% (This was not due to HIS policies, but because of the economic disaster passed along to him by the Bush Administration). Most economists agreed with that assessment. It appears that the rate of unemployment is slowing, and it's possible we may not reach 10%. Many companies have streamlined operations to reduce costs and improve profitability. This means they need fewer employees, so any recovery on the employment side will be slow.
Unfortunately, our country is consumed by excess in both private and public sectors. The government and big businesses will always grow in an unsustainable manner because of power and greed. The more diligence and oversight, the less disruption when things go south. Since there was no oversight for the previous 8 years, we are living with a disaster that will take years to fix. Obama is bright and visionary, but he is not a miracle worker. Give him some time since we are already seeing signs of recovery.
Did anyone actually listen to his speech this morning??? He spelled everything out with easy to understand and widely agreed upon economic numbers. The economy is recovering, and yes, it will take time before we have a full recovery (so it may take a bit longer for your neighbor or girlfriend to find a job. However, their chances are better because of the projects the ARRA funds). Until you listen to the entire speech, please stop posting your goofy statements. You are just proving the VP's point about needing to improve the US education system to continue to be competitive in this global economy.
The new definition of a recovery – a net loss of "only" 300K jobs per month.
Gee, maybe for government run health care, it will be deemed successful if we have a net loss of "only" 300K lives per month.
Recession will end soon...because that just means it's not worse than last quarter...WHICH WAS AWFUL. There is NO GROWTH happening due to high taxes (locallly and nationally), huge debt, and no confidence in what appears to be a takeover by Socialists. Wow, Obama is a scary scary president. Obama is the worst American president in history. Worst.
Simply put, NO JOBS IN IOWA
Most projects are being finished ahead of schedule and under budget. Now that is change we can believe in. Keep up the great work Mr. Vice President!
Give American people a break, CREATE or SAVED?
Of course if all the education you have is, A high school drop out, drink beer, go bowling, eat fast food and watch Fox new lies day and night you will never give any credit to the administration for what they have done to stabilized the downfall.
Do you want me to rewing the tape for you back a year ago?
– Job slash in the 700000
– Stock market plumbing with people savings and retirements gone
– home forclosure at the pic
– Conusmer confidence and spending at the lowest
– Companies disapearing on the clap of fingers
– banks unable to provide loans and credits
All the recepies for depression was boilling.
Now This president tried to stabilized things and impliments policies to give us again prosperity and you are all crying out loud calling names.
I will rather listen and read from well respected economists in the nation to give me prospectives on the ecomony than listen to cable chatering and fox lies
THE REAL REFORM IS EDUCATION BECAUSE TOO MANY STUPIDS IN THIS COUNTRY.
Biden must still have jet lag from all that traveling he did. What recovery? The US is still in critical condition. Doesn't Biden read the daily newspapers.
I've heard several economist say the economy is improving. It will take at least a year or more in order to completely turn IT around. It took 8 years to destroy and now the Obama haters want the economy to improve over night .
PLEASE FOLKS GET REAL.
The empirically derived estimate for the time it takes for a stimulus, or most any type of governmental payout to the private sector, to take effect is around six to eight months. The stimulus was enacted early in the year, so the substantial recent uptick in all major stock indexes coincides quite neatly with the expected interval for an effective stimulus. Unemployment and job losses appear to be leveling off, likely in advance of a turnaround.
Of course, that's assuming you believe unemployment or the stock market to be accurate barometers of economic health.
If you are scared that Biden is second in line to be President then just look at who is third in line..................now that is one scary thought. The bottom line is this.........unemployment is still between 9-10 percent. If you include the people who are working part time to get by and wish they had a full time job then it is between 16-17 percent. Meanwhile, the national debt is around 7-10 trillion. If nothing is done to cut spending then by 2019 we will be paying 80 percent of our taxes will be going to interest on the debt we currently owe to CHINA.