Although the Obama administration said last week that the $862 stimulus bill had created or saved some three million jobs, the popular consensus, now seemingly cemented in the minds of the majority of Americans, is that it was ill-advised and poorly targeted. The conventional wisdom is that because it has not dented the high unemployment numbers (as the administration said it would), it's a political loser.
Discussing that and a plethora of other topics was Vice President Joe Biden on ABC's This Week program on Sunday. In comments that ignited the GOP base, Biden reflected on criticism that has come from the left, that originated when the stimulus package was being formed in the winter of 2009, that in fact it was too small. The VP said it had to be though in order to curry favor with at least a few Republicans, so it could get the 60 votes needed for passage in the U.S. Senate:
BIDEN: I think it would have been bigger. I think it would have been bigger. In fact, what we offered was slightly bigger than that. But the truth of the matter is that the recovery package, everybody's talking about it having — it's over. The truth is now, we're spending more now this summer than we — I'm calling this the recovery — the summer of recovery. We have two, three times as many highway projects going. We have significant investment in broadband for the first time now. It's starting to really ramp up because the contracts have been let. In high speed rail, in wind energy.
First out of the chute in criticizing Biden's comment in Florida was Republican Senatorial candidate Marco Rubio, whose spokesman issued a press release trying the remark to Charlie Crist's well known endorsement of the plan last year, which made him a pariah within his party.
“Vice President Biden’s comment that the stimulus would have been even bigger if not for principled opposition by Republicans is exactly why Florida needs a check-and-balance in Washington today. Floridians know that Marco Rubio would be a vote to end the out-of-control spending in Washington and a vote for responsible economic ideas that create jobs. Floridians also know that Charlie Crist and Congressman Meek would be an automatic vote for wasteful Washington big government stimulus programs that have failed Florida and our nation,” said Alex Burgos, Rubio for Senate spokesman.
Republican commentator Kevin Madden tweeted that he could envision the TV ads coming, mocking Biden's declaration that the stimulus was too small.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.