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Gotta love him even if you don't.
He made his remarks on Thursday in response to questioning by NBCs David Gregory at a Washington Ideas Forum at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Gregory asked Biden: Why is the economy getting worse? Biden mentioned domestic issues, such as the congressional battle over raising the debt ceiling in July and then the downgrading of the nations credit rating in August.
He then discussed foreign problems that he said were "not within our power" to correct but are "within our orbit" of concern, such as the economic turmoil in Greece and other countries, the concerns of the European banks, and an apparent housing market problem in China. There are roughly, depending on the estimate, 30 to 50 million apartment units in China that are vacant and people are worried about the real estate bubble there, said the vice president.
Biden then said the economy would improve if President Barack Obamas $447-billion jobs legislation, the American Jobs Act, were passed by Congress because the bill would, according to some economists, create between 1.7 and 2 million jobs. Most of those jobs would be public sector, government jobs.
"We can now give it [the economy] a jump start by passing this jobs bill," said Biden. "The things that we can control are the things that frustrate me the most that we are not able to get done." The legislation would, Biden said, increase the growth of the GDP by up to a couple percentage points. The cost of $447 billion, however, is 2.97 percent of the current GDP: $15.01 trillion.
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Biden was interviewed as part of The Atlantic magazine and the Aspen Institutes Washington Ideas Forum on Thursday at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Gregory asked: Let me ask you about accountability when it comes to the economy. The presidents job approval rating stands at 42 percent -- the view of his, and by extension your, handling of the economy is pretty low. Now, either the big efforts that you have made as an administration turned the economy around or they didnt -- and they appeared to not have done that. Either youre accountable or theres only so much government can do.
Biden responded by saying that a clear majority of the American people blame their financial straights on the last administration. They understand what got us in this trouble, Biden said. He acknowledged that the Obama administration is now in charge. We are in charge, Biden said. We have turned it [the economy] around. He then said, Weve created 1.7 million jobs not nearly enough --- and its been offset by the failure of the Republicans to support the stimulus we had.
Americans understand that weve kept it [the economy] from getting extremely worse, said the vice president. Weve made it better, but not good enough. He further said that Obamas 42 percent approval rating represents the frustration people feel about the slow progress. Its like the cars out of the ditch, he said. Its moving along, but its only chugging along at 25 miles an hour and theyre used to going 60.
Biden on U.S. Economy:
