Our Embarrassing Vice President

If you think Joe Biden saying, "Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?' The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you" is the stupidest thing he has said this week, think again:

From The Weekly Standard:

Michael Shear reports:


Vice President Biden plans a political broadside this afternoon in the home district of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), accusing the senior Republican lawmaker of joining in his party's smear of the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"To those who say that our economic decisions 'have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and simply have not worked' I say, take a look around," Biden will say, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Washington Post.

"I say, 'Don't let your opposition to the Recovery Act blind you to its results,'" Biden plans to say in the Richmond speech. "'Come see what I see everywhere I go: workers rehired, factories reopened, cops on the street, teachers in the classroom, progress toward getting our economy back on the move.'"

Really? Seriously? Mr. Biden, do you think the people of Michigan, where unemployment has hit 15%, are seeing these miraculous things of which you speak? Does anyone reading this honestly believe that anyone in the U.S. can look around where they are and see positive results from the Stimulus bill (and notice that obviously the memo went out to start calling it "the Recovery Act," which it was called in Congress, but no one prior to now has called it anything but the Stimulus Bill). Since it is OBVIOUS that it isn't stimulating anything, it's better wordplay to call it "The Recovery Act." Maybe the American people won't notice, or maybe they will think it's something different!

Let's face it. The Stimulus only created a windfall of new programs and the biggest peacetime spending increase in American history, giving us larger deficits and more taxes. When we had an opportunity to lessen the length of the recession, we didn't. It's that simple. Now it will drag on for at least a year more than it needed to be. We will eventually recover. This is America, after all. But it will leave a wound that will take much longer to heal.