The Gift That Keeps on Giving

For Republicans, the silver lining in last November's elections was having Joe Biden move into the #2 slot in the administration and in national politics. The walking gaffe machine has been hard at work giving the GOP seemingly endless footage for election ads for 2010 and 2012. Whether it was his admission that he would advise his family against using public transportation to avoid H1N1 flu to the administration's "misread" of the nation's economic situation, the VP has had no shortage of headache-inducing situations for the Democrats. His latest, however, is a real head-slapper: that without the deficit-creating stimulus package, the nation would be bankrupt, a comment that should be met with a collective "What?" by the American public. Biden's latest, uttered at a public appearance in Richmond, VA deserves all of the ridicule it's sure to receive.

Let's review- the Obama administration came into office with a struggling economy. They handed over the construction of a $787 billion unstimulating "stimulus" bill that was supposed to stem the tide of unemployment and create or save 4 million jobs. Since there is no measurable way to track saved jobs, it was already greeted with some degree of skepticism. Administration projections were that the passage of the bill would cap unemployment at 8%, and without it unemployment would rise to 9%. We are currently at 9.5% unemployment and rising. The package was sold as being timely, with Obama touting "shovel-ready" projects. To date, only 7.7% of the money has been spent. Further, much of what has been spent has been used for extension of unemployment benefits and to help states close budget deficits- not exactly stimulating behavior. Meanwhile, deficit projections are fast approaching $2 trillion. How exactly could the situation be worse without the bill?

Meanwhile, the Democrats continue to pile on the deficits, passing a $3.6 trillion federal budget and are in the process of attempting a radical overhaul of health care that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects will only pile on more debt while having a marginal effect on insuring the uninsured. Concurrently, the Federal Reserve continues to print money around the clock, potentially creating an inflationary situation when- or if- the economy turns around.

Biden further contended that the stimulus has spurred banks to resume issuing loans- the same banks that have been routinely criticized for using stimulus funds to improve ledger sheets instead of creating loans (for that matter, he repeated the false claim that this is the worst economy since the Great Depression. It's not. It is the worst since Jimmy Carter, and Obama and company seem intent on re-making Carter's mistakes).

Biden continues to show an absolute lack of a grasp of reality. Americans are seeing a mountain of red ink with little to nothing to show for it. Try selling the effectiveness of the bill in places like Ohio or Michigan, where unemployment has soared into double digits- lots of jobs created there. Or wait to see what happens in coal-producing states, if the abominable cap-and-trade bill becomes law. Poll after poll shows that the most important issue for citizens is deficits- it could be why Obama's disapproval numbers have gone from an average of 15% in January to 38% in July, matched with a decline in approval numbers to 57%. However, he's proving to be a boon to the GOP. House Democrats- particularly those in toss-up and Republican-leaning districts- won't be pleased with being associated with Biden's remarks or the attendant policies. How a marked increase in spending avoided bankruptcy defies any measure of logic. In the meantime, Biden has created another problem that White House spinmeisters will have to deal with. It might be time for another trip abroad for old Joe.