Let's Hope Joe Biden's Grasp of the Economy Is Better than His and His Boss's Reading Skills
Remember back during last fall's election, when Barack Obama and Joe Biden barely went a sentence without reminding everyone that we were in the worst economic situation since the Great Depression?
Well, they didn't apparently mean it. Or something. Here's a quote from Vice President Biden, the man who is charged with overseeing stimulus spending (by the way, how's that going, chief?):
"We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package," Biden said on ABC's "This Week." "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."…
Meanwhile, liberal economists such as Paul Krugman have argued for more public spending now, just as the stimulus money begins trickling into the economy.
Not to worry, though, America.
"And so this is just starting," Biden said. "The pace of the ball is now going to increase."
Given that little of the stimulus money has been spent so far, and indeed is mostly supposed to happen next fiscal year, when skies will be blue and clear again, it's a great time to start talking about a second stimulus, right? A smaller, more-targeted one?
"The economy took away everything they put on the table," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-leaning economic think tank.
"We strongly believe we need another stimulus, and we need it now," added Thea Lee, the policy director for the AFL-CIO.
Sounds even better with more details!
I like the idea of a fourth stimulus, one that could happen right now! Or at least tomorrow. And it includes a John Holmes joke for free! First proposed even before the first Obama stimulus plan swung into ill-advised action like former House Speaker Denny Hastert at a pancake breakfast: