Biden defends stimulus package in Henrico
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At J. Sarge, Biden discusses how stimulus package...
Introduced by Ashland businessman John Fernandez, Vice President Joseph Biden says stimulus will help small-business owners across the nation and restore dignity to men and women out of work.Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. strongly defended the Obama administration's $787 billion economic-stimulus package yesterday, saying it has prevented the country from going into an even deeper recession.
"I am absolutely, positively confident that we are on the right track," he told an audience of about 140 students, faculty members and invited guests at the Henrico County campus of J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.
Biden later attended a private fundraiser in Henrico for state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee for governor.
At J. Sargeant Reynolds, Biden urged patience for the stimulus plan and noted that employment is the last aspect of the economy to recover.
"No serious recession has ever been led out of by creating jobs. That's the last thing that happens," he said. "You've got to restore the underpinnings."
"I ask those critics . . . would they not help prevent [layoffs] of thousands of teachers, firefighters, cops? Would they not give a tax cut to the 95 percent of the hardest-working people in America? Would they not give them an extra $68 a month [through decreased withholding taxes] to help them through it? That's billions of dollars to be poured back into the economy. . . .
"Would they sit back and let the economy collapse?"
Biden announced a $1.59 million grant for law enforcement in Richmond. Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood shared the stage with the vice president and referred to him once as "Vice President O'Biden."
The vice president joked about the slip by noting that he is Irish.
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones; Frank Cardella, president of the Chesterfield Education Association; and John Fernandez, owner of an Ashland food company, testified to the benefits of the stimulus package before Biden delivered a 30-minute speech.
Fernandez, whose firm, Daystar Desserts, makes desserts for the wholesale trade, said a small-business loan-guaranty program in the stimulus package helped him stay in business and expand, when his bank wouldn't give him a loan during the credit crunch.
Jones, who accompanied Biden to the event, said he had asked the vice president to do two things: "bring high-speed rail to Richmond, and bring it before I go out of office."
Biden, attending two events in Rep. Eric I. Cantor's 7th Congressional District, appeared to taunt the House GOP whip.
Without naming Cantor, Biden said: "The very guy who says this [stimulus] is not working wants to make sure you get high-speed rail. . . . Now where do you think that money is coming from?"
Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, has been one of the leading critics of the stimulus package, saying it has not produced the jobs the Obama administration promised.
Cantor also has pushed for stimulus money to build a high-speed rail line between Petersburg and Washington, through Richmond. The stimulus package includes $8 billion for high-speed rail.
In a conference call with reporters yesterday ahead of Biden's visit, Cantor said he supports high-speed rail "as a stand-alone bill." But he said "the merit of this one project does not excuse the thousands of others that do not create jobs, the billions in pork projects, and the lack of pro-growth policies to immediately create jobs."
Biden said the Obama administration inherited the deep recession from Republicans who did little to help the middle class.
"The American people are tough enough, strong enough, understanding enough to know that this cannot be done overnight, but we've got to stick with it," he said.
Virginia first lady Anne Holton was among the guests at the community college. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was out of state. Today, Kaine will be in Biloxi, Miss., to attend the annual meeting of the National Governors Association.
Biden sprinkled his speech with references to Virginia. He noted that $6.5 million from the stimulus is funding the paving of portions of Interstate 295, creating 100 new jobs. Also, a total of $24 million saved 685 jobs in law enforcement, he said.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or
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For lasting recovery, the fed. government needs to back out of markets that should be free, like the home loan market, in which it precipitated the collapse for which it is now claiming to cure. Central planning fails every time its tried. This stimulus package puts the locus of decision making authority closer to the center, where it shouldn’t be. Now we send in all our money to Washington, and they dole out where they think it’s best to be spent. Better idea: slash taxes & borrowing, stop meddling in free markets, and let us decide.
When a sector of our economy becomes distorted, as happened with the housing bubble that was inflated by irresponsible lending practices encouraged by the Community Reinvestment Act, and then collapses, other sectors of the economy suffer as well. The reason that government is so hard it is that it relies so heavily on real estate values and transactions for revenue. All of that said, there were other ways to preserve the jobs of public school teachers, police officers. firefighters and other public employees; for instance, cutting back on “studies” and other public pork given to special interest groups (e.g. ACORN) and refocusing on essential operations. Government has been unsuccessful at making the hard decisions and prioritizing. Obama, O’Biden, O’Pelosi, O’Reed and O’Kaine continue to insist that we can tax and spend our way out of this situation. The whole house of cards is going to fall and the pain will be much worse and much more widespread than if they had allowed the economic system to purge itself of the trouble assets and distorted components, through real bankruptcies. Yes, I know, people would have been hurt. That is an unforturnate, but necessary fact of life.
“He is only paying off union public school teachers”
drhoagie, I’m a public school teacher who benefited from the stimulus packages by not losing my job. I do not belong to the union. Most of my co-workers do not belong to the union as Va is a right to work state.
I do not work in the private school system because the pay is less.
Exhibiting very poor leadership qualities, Biden again (and again and again…..)said the Obama administration inherited the deep recession from Republicans. Even though Democrats were the Majority since the 206 elections.
Let’s just take that at face value as it does not appear the Biden and Obama people have anything else.
Obama’s own people put out a chart depicting where unemployment would be if he signed a so-called stimulus plan and and where unemployment would be if he did not sign the Democrat so-called stimulus bill.
By Biden’s own assertion, the projected unemployment numbers that “the Republicans” passed on to Obama would be MUCH, MUCH lower then what they actually are. Biden is admitting failure.
You can’t make this up. The proof provided is from Obama’s own people.
http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/stimulus-vs-unemployment-june-dots.gif
In the spirit of full disclosure, the T-D fails to mention the president of the Chesterfield Education Association is the head of a large, rich white labor union. The national chapter of this powerful labor union gives over 95% of their member collected PAC money to Democrats. In return, they become the primary beneficiaries when the government confiscates $TRILLION$ from you and I.
When Gaff-prone Joe says; “I ask those critics . . . would they not help prevent [layoffs] of thousands of teachers, firefighters, cops?“ He is only paying off union public school teachers, not educators in the private sector, union firefighters and union police.
Unions membership has plummeted to less than 8% in the private sector. Much less in Virginia. It appears to all of us President Obama and VP Biden are partaking in a quid pro quo payoff at our expense. By virtue of his silence, it appears Craig Deed embraces this tired, reckless and reckless form of politics as well.
Rayzor,
Highways suffer from a double-whammy here in Virginia.
The Republican General Assembly doesn’t want to spend much money on highways, because it would mean raising taxes.
The Democratic Congress didn’t put much stimulus money into highways and bridges because mass-transit is greener and creates more longer lasting jobs.
The net is that, as you said, VDOT is spending all of its stimulus on very short term, pothole-filling projects. Not very sustainable in terms of employment.
The Obama Administration will not be able to tout the “95% of Americans who will not see a tax increase” phrase much longer (and arguably should not be able to say this now): 1) The largest cigarette tax hike went into effect in April. Smokers tend to be disproportionately from lower incomes. 2)Obama is going to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. This will increase the tax rate for low income families from 10 to 15%. Technically, not an Obama tax increase, but he could certainly prevent the increase from happening. 3) Similarly, the child tax credit will be reduced from $1000 to $500/child in 2011. Obama could also prevent this from happening. 4) If the energy “Cap & Trade” bill passes it will increase rates for anyone using electricity.
The Administration is simply spending too much money. There is realistically no way to pay for all the freebies promised by this President without raising taxes.
Here’s my problem with the whole “creating new jobs” mantra:
“Biden…noted that $6.5 million from the stimulus is funding the paving of portions of Interstate 295, creating 100 new jobs.“
Okay. It “created” 100 new jobs. For THAT project alone. That doesn’t mean that those 100 employees will have guaranteed jobs for the next month, let alone enough to make a career out of, which to me is a key part of “creating jobs.“ I can create jobs. I would pay for these services: I need someone to mow my lawn. That’s a job. What about someone to do my laundry? That’s a job, isn’t it?
All this rhetoric is just that: nothing but empty words.
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