Idiot #2's employment continuation light is flashing yellow...........
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Biden Says Obama Administration ‘Misread’ Economy (Update1)
By Ryan J. Donmoyer
July 5 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration “misread the economy” when it forecast unemployment would peak at 8 percent if Congress enacted a $787 billion fiscal stimulus.
Biden, appearing on the ABC News program “This Week,” said that in crafting its initial economic policies, the Obama administration followed consensus views of the severity of the crisis. Unemployment reached 9.5 percent last month, the Labor Department said July 2.
“The truth is, there was a misread” of how bad the economy was earlier this year, Biden said.
Biden also said it was premature to discuss crafting another economic stimulus measure because the administration has paid out only about $120 billion of the funds approved for road and school construction and other job-creating projects in February.
“You’re going to start to see a lot more jobs created” as more funds from the stimulus package are disbursed, he said.
Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, appearing on C- Span’s “Newsmakers” program, also called the need for a second stimulus bill premature, in part because “there’s still a major injection coming down the pike,” from the first package.
He also reiterated predictions Obama has made that the nation’s unemployment rate will reach the double-digit mark.
‘Disappointed’ Democrats
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said on “Fox News Sunday” that congressional Democrats are “disappointed” that stimulus funds haven’t been distributed faster.
Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the House’s top- ranking Republican, said his party will be proven right in predictions that the stimulus legislation grew government and padded the federal deficit without creating jobs.
“This was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, and jobs,” Boehner said on the Fox program. “The fact is, it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending. I don’t believe it will create jobs.”
The Labor Department reported July 2 that employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, which was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop in May. The jobless rate increased to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983.
bloomberg.com |
