Big admission from Vice President Joe Biden today.

“The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy,” Biden told me during our exclusive “This Week” interview in Iraq.

Biden acknowledged administration officials were too optimistic earlier this year when they predicted the unemployment rate would peak at 8 percent as part of their effort to sell the stimulus package. The national unemployment rate has ballooned to 9.5 percent in June — the worst in 26 years.

“The truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited,” said Biden, who is leading the administration’s effort to implement it’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

“Now, that doesn’t — I’m not — 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,” he told me.

The vice president argued more time is needed for the stimulus to work.

“We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package,” he said. “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 to distribute the bulk of money.”

Everyone misread the economy? I think not.

Read the transcript of the interview.




  1. lock_down says:

    Well, at least he’s using your tax dollars to put it right.

  2. deowll says:

    Actually there are still several countries that have good growth numbers. We aren’t one of them and neither is the EU. Likely reasons why is regressive tax polices and large government debt loads.

    How can regressive tax loads stop business? Amazon just dropped a deal with businesses in NC because the state passed a tax and the business model no longer computed. The end result was that less money was being earned in NC and the state ended up with less revenue.

  3. Breetai says:

    Heh, Awesome Idea! Trillions in new spending, and it didn’t help. So the solution is to make the problem even bigger?!

    Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

  4. GregA says:

    Yeah, as much as this interview shakes my confidence, thanks to the attention whore Palin being bitter that Michael Jackson was getting all the press coverage, I am reminded that she could have been the one doing this interview and I thank my lucky stars that these guys are in there.

    It could have been so much worse.

  5. Thomas says:

    #3
    Higher tax proponents never seem to learn that the way to increase tax revenue is rarely if ever through higher tax rates. The way to increase tax revenue is to entice people to put their money into taxable investments such as new businesses.

  6. sargasso says:

    We’re like blind men trying to describe an elephant.

    http://tinyurl.com/m79gkk

  7. RTaylor says:

    The states in slashing budgets will make recover more difficult. NC for example announced slashing social services and laying off teachers. A few days later the governor traveled the state laying out, despite what she promised, 1.5 billion in new taxes to be raised to save the children, or the NEA however you interpret it. They’re just playing games to pass regressive taxes with double digit unemployment. This same state gave Apple a 200 million dollar tax break for a data center that will provide just 150 jobs. Most of the states are playing the same tricks. Next year they will not have a stimulus package to offset low revenues.

  8. Mr. Fusion says:

    #3, donothing,

    Likely reasons why is regressive tax polices and large government debt loads.

    The same old failed mantra from the failed right wing nuts. It was the policies of the Bush Administration that got us in this mess. Ya, the same old “blame it on the high taxes” crowd.

    The biggest thing I really like about the right wing nuts is how they are crying about all the new taxes Obama is saddling them with. Ya, there are so many they can only name one, the Tobacco Tax, which has yet to take effect.

    It might be to their benefit if some of these right wing nuts took some economics lessons.

  9. Ah_Yea says:

    “we and everyone else misread the economy” is another democratic Flat-Out-Lie!

    Every honest political analysis knew the economy was bad and the stimulus wouldn’t work. Or was I the only one listening to Andrew Horowitz for the last year?

    Here is the real reason:

    “The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds. Obama has taken George W. Bush’s inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form.

    The Obama administration has no shame, and is willing to abandon reason altogether to achieve its short-term political goals. Ronald Reagan ran up big deficits in part because he believed that his tax cuts would produce economic growth, and ultimately pay for themselves. He may well have been excessively optimistic about the merits of tax cuts, but at least he had a story.

    Obama has no story. Nobody believes that his unprecedented expansion of the welfare state will lead to enough economic growth. Nobody believes that it will pay for itself. Everyone understands that higher spending today begets higher spending tomorrow. That means that his economic strategy simply doesn’t add up.

    Character Deficit

    Back in the 1980s, Reagan’s own economist, Martin Feldstein, spoke up when he felt that the Reagan administration was pushing the deficit too far. Where are the economists with such character today? Apparently, the job description for economists has transformed from recommending policies that are defensible to defending whatever policies that the political hacks in the West Wing dream up.”

    http://tinyurl.com/r9xqam

  10. Winston says:

    “We misread how bad the economy was…”

    No, actually, you were pulling predictions out of your ass like most financial “experts” because you were being advised by such people, the very same “experts” who didn’t see this coming from miles away and who continued to yell, “Buy, buy, buy!” right up to the crash.

    You should have listened to this guy:

    market-ticker.org

  11. bobbo, having a fairly good memory says:

    I first suspected Obamagod might earn a FAIL when early in the development of the Bush Legacy he was asked how the economic downturn would affect all his social programs. His answer was “not much.” Maybe slow down the implementation schedule, but no basic changes.

    Either stupid or a zealot not to recognize changed circumstances.

    But then he went on currently pushing 2 Trillion Dollar increase in Federal Spending on Healthcare in order to save money by reducing waste.

    Sometimes, it hard to avoid the hypocrisy. As far as Joe goes, what else can he say? Politics 101.

  12. Faultfinding says:

    In typical democrat fashion it’s once again someone else’s fault. Here he blames “the economy” instead of “the governments obsessive idea that you can just keep spending money like drunks without repercussions.”

    Oh sure, they make it sound a little more like they are taking responsibility, by saying “Oh, we misjudged” but look, they are still misjudging, they always misjudge, it’s not the economy STOOOPID it’s rampant spending of money you don’t have on things that do not produce much in return that keeps wrecking the economy.

    All I can say now is “Go Palin”.

    Obama will be good for making peace, but you watch, she’s gonna assemble a team to blast through all this spending crap to put us on the road of restoring true freedoms and independence.

  13. SparkyOne says:

    I have been out of work since November and I am about to leave my children with a cousin while I look for work outside California. Nothing like a 55 year old white guy, pounding the pavement with a total look of despair on his face.

  14. bobbo, patting the retard on his head says:

    #13–faulty==what in Palin’s background leads you to believe she is fiscally responsible?

    #14–sparky==hope you have POSITIVE goals in mind and not some aimless “just get out of California” idea in mind. There are studies showing where “new jobs” are etc.

    Like every other endeavor–Knowledge is Power. Good Luck.

  15. Mr Diesel says:

    At least your children will be well cared for in the state of Kalifornia, that is unless the illegals use up all the state’s resources first.

  16. GregA says:

    #15,

    I can no longer tell if they are being ironic or serious.

  17. Breetai says:

    #13
    “Go Palin”

    GAGH!! Bad… Worse…

    Republicans really need to suck it up and admit their moral high ground is a sham and back Ron Paul.

  18. bobbo, having read a modest proposal says:

    #17–Greg==yes, irony/sarcasm even humor can be difficult in a short form written format. “Knowing” the reader can not really be assumed on these blogs so when one puts their tongue in their cheek, they should not be surprised when their message is garbled—if it is.

    The other method to recognize sarcasm is that it expresses an opinion so extreme that it cannot be taken seriously. That doesn’t work on a USA Political Blog where fully 20% of the population seriously considers Palin a viable candidate.

    So–bad etiquette to claim humor. Say it straight unless you are appealing to iconic figures: The Flying Spaghetti Monster, OverLords of various stripes, or Elvis.

  19. Rick's Cafe says:

    So the administration finally admitted a truth; they had all the information in front of them and still came up with the wrong answer.

    Kind of makes ya question the strength of their ‘predictions’. Unemployment, man-made global warming, no taxes for incomes less than $250,000…..not seeing much of a challenge to Nostradamus record here.

  20. ArianeB says:

    A second stimulus is indeed needed and it would be extremely simple to pass and implement: BAIL OUT THE STATES!

    Every state has had to cut its budget, cut jobs, cut spending especially in education. Arizona which finally started getting its education back where it should be is now back in 50th place for per pupil spending thanks to recent budget cuts.

    Bail out the states and you save state jobs, education jobs, medical jobs, parks and recreation jobs, road maintenance jobs, clerical staff jobs, etc. Half a billion for each congressman and senator in a state should do it. That would wipe out Californias 25 billion shortfall, and Arizona’s 5 billion shortfall, the formula is probably the same nationwide.

  21. Rick's Cafe says:

    #9
    If it’s all Bush’s fault….why hasn’t the savior fixed it? Instead of making it worse??

  22. Sea Lawyer says:

    #21, speaking of the states: does it ever occur to people to ask why it is that the states provide so much, yet the the amount of money they take in is paltry compared to what the federal government takes in? Instead, the normal way of doing things is that the federal government takes far more in than it actually needs, and then doles it back out to the states as bribes to get its programs implemented.

    And even more locally, things aren’t looking any better as people are starting to expect their property taxes to go down, just like the values of their homes have over the past year or two.
    http://nytimes.com/2009/07/05/business/economy/05appeals.html?_r=1

  23. GregA says:

    #22,

    Heading story on MSNBC right now is that Obama is ending Regan Era ‘Too big to fail’ banking regulation and signed all those banks corporate death warrants.

    Bravo!

    I’d say that is the most significant free market economic progress of the last 30 years, and a real chunk out of all the damage Reagan did to our economic system all those years ago;)

  24. chuck says:

    “The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy”

    When anyone in power decides that its not just their fault, it’s everyone’s fault, then you know they will never take responsibility for anything.

    For the last 6 months they’ve been saying it’s Bush’s fault. Now, apparently, we all screwed up.

    wow. It must be tough for Biden knowing he can’t rely on anyone for help.

    #21 – to those who think we need a bigger stimulus package: do you really think that the government has a secret, big pile of money that they’ve been hoarding away? There is no money. Period.

    The first stimulus (from Bush in October) was several hundred $billion and did nothing. Then we had a $trillion stimulus. How will a third $trillion stimulus do anything but increase rampant hyper-inflation?

  25. Patrick says:

    What the administration is saying is that they don’t have a clue. I don’t criticize them for that, only for wasting hundreds of billions of tax $ while being clueless. Time for them to go.

  26. aslightlycrankygeek says:

    NOBODY believed those numbers. Even liberal commentators and pro-stimulus economists admitted at the time they were pushing the stimulus package that the numbers they were using were overly optimistic. Can anyone reference one person who agreed with their predictions?

    I remember listening to the Clark Howard show during those days and thinking “Why can’t we have politicians who honest enough to admit the obvious”. When a non-political financial talk show is ripping your idea apart, it is time to acknowledge that it is not only the “right wing nuts” who know you are full of BS.

    Either the administration knew the numbers were overly optimistic and wanted to sell their plan, or they are less intelligent than the previous administration.

  27. amodedoma says:

    Bullshit, they new it was coming. Their buddies knew it was coming. They’ve all been feasting on the carcass for some time now.

    Stimulus and giving away your tax dollars is not the same thing. Stimulus presupposes that conditions will be placed on the money to insure that it’s use promotes economic recovery. Unfortunately no such conditions were placed. Now they want more money, of course they do. They have to fatten up to cut their losses during this crisis. It’s a shame John Q. Public doesn’t have any influence in the capital, we could all use some fattening up.

  28. GregA says:

    #26,

    I feel for you man, it is going to be a tough decade for you. Believe me, I know.

  29. ridin the short bus says:

    Bush screwed up the economy, Bush Screwed up the confidence to do business with America, Bush allowed the wanker bankers to run away with Greed, Bush made a useless war… Bush made the world Dislike America… so with no confidence and all of our manufacturing now leaving/left America we only have the Greedy Coporate A.H’s to blame and who is that?…The Right Wing Bush Crowd… Its all elementary and everyone is running around looking for reasons and who to blame… Just simply look at the past 8 years policies and there is the real answeres… In reality we have given away America and dumbed down our school children (now young adults) we fool our selves to think we are a great nation and have the best standards of living and the best health care and the ..blah blah blah… maybe your grandfather could say these things and they were ture…but not any more… Wake up People… we are all F(*&^ed and we know who to blame, but we cant do a thng about it!! Obama was listening to the same econimic advisers and experts that any president will call upon,,they are all yale/harvard/wall street/goldman sachs wanker self absorbed bankers… look where they got us!!! Maybe we should let a farmers wife run the books for a while!! I always wondrered where did Obama get the Money for University?.. Where he went wasn’t cheap?… But the Bush Era screwed us all… does he even know what he did?.. I doubt it!! He was on some sort of Modern day Cruisade…


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