VP Biden Kicks off Middle Class Task Force with Focus on Green Jobs
EmailABC News’ Karen Travers reports: Vice President Biden kicked off the Obama Administration’s Middle Class Task Force with a panel discussion on environmentally friendly (“green”) jobs at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia today. So what are green jobs? Biden defined them as, “jobs associated with environmental improvement and improving the lives of the American people.” “Scientists working on an advanced, renewable alternative to CO2-producing fossil fuels is engaged in a green job, as is a laborer winterizing or weatherizing a home, or a lineman or a linewoman building out the smart grid — they’re all green jobs,” the vice president said. The Obama Administration formed this task force in order to identify and focus on economic policies to benefit the middle class, bringing together the administration’s economic advisers and Cabinet members to work on three key areas: job creation, job training and work-life balance. Biden said today that in this economic crisis, the middle class is suffering. “They weren’t very much in on the upside; they’re in on the downside,” he said. He highlighted key critical ways that investing in green jobs can help the middle class: more jobs and better paying jobs to keep up with 21st century needs; lower energy costs and a cleaner environment. The task force meeting consisted of a panel of experts in this field, focusing on how the economic recovery plan can create environmentally friendly jobs and provide workers with training. Biden was joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), Sens. Arlen Specter (R) and Bob Casey (D) and Democratic Reps. Chaka Fattah and Robert Brady. To tee up the event, the Vice President penned an op-ed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer and touted the $20 billion in the stimulus plan that was put aside for a green economy, including $500 million for job training. "We’re starting to make the investments needed to leave a cleaner world to our children while also creating good jobs right now. When you’re creating green jobs, you’re doing well by doing good," Biden wrote. At the panel event, Biden highlighted several areas that will see greater funding because of the stimulus plan including investment in wind and solar energy, modernization of the electrical grid, and more energy efficient housing. When announcing on January 30 that Biden will head up the new task force on the middle class, President Obama cited Biden’s upbringing and work ethic as supporting evidence for his first big assignment. "There is no one who brings to bear the same combination of personal experience and substantive expertise. Joe’s come a long way and has achieved a great deal, but he’s never forgotten his roots as a working-class kid from Scranton, Pa.," Obama said last month at the White House. "He’s lived the American dream, and lived and worked to make that dream a reality for others." "With this task force, we have a single, highly visible group with one single goal: to raise the living standards of the people who are the backbone in this country — the middle class," Biden said that day. "Because when they, in fact, their standard is raised, the poor do better. … And by the way, the wealthy do better as well. Everyone does better." – Karen Travers
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Everyone does better with a green job….lol….I’m sure that all those people who have been laid off in retail are excited about their new careers installing weatherproofing and solar panels. For me, I’m hoping to get a grid job, whatever that is.
Posted by: Sigmonde | February 27, 2009, 6:33 pm 6:33 pm
I just love how some of Obama’s sound bites come back to bite him….He crucified McCain for not being computer literate……….
Joe Biden, when asked about their website….turned to someone and asked “what was the number of that website?”
And while fielding questions…he was asked by a caller…how the stimulas bill would help her small business?
Joe’s answer: well…if people can’t get to your business…we could probably build a bridge so they could get to you……….
Please tell me why he gets a pass for all his gaffs….while Sarah Palin was CRUCIFIED for hers???
Is’nt he the the experienced veteran as far as handling the public?….or how he appears….?
Sarah was thrust into the national spotlight….and then ‘ambushed’ at every opportunity…
I’m damn mad….And can’t understand why the women in this country have let this stand…..
Racism is taboo….but sexism is alive and well……….
Posted by: J Moore | February 27, 2009, 6:34 pm 6:34 pm
“Sarah was thrust into the national spotlight….and then ‘ambushed’ at every opportunity…”
Ambushed by being asked her opinion on the current foreign policy direction and what newspapers she liked to read?
Posted by: Ryan C | February 27, 2009, 6:39 pm 6:39 pm
“Please tell me why he gets a pass for all his gaffs….while Sarah Palin was CRUCIFIED for hers???”
Because the public knows Biden well and accepts his gaffes as part of his charm.
Palin was unknown and became defined by her gaffes.
Posted by: Ryan C | February 27, 2009, 6:41 pm 6:41 pm
J Moore, a majority of politicians have “glitches” in them, heck, I’ll even Xerox a copy of that for ya! The last time I heard that was in the late 80′s. Some people can get away with it and others can’t. Maybe it’s how gullible they present themselves.
Posted by: spacerook1 | February 27, 2009, 6:47 pm 6:47 pm
We as the people need OK all
the plan of this admin.
OBAMA AND BIDEN U.S.A.
Thank You!!!!!
Posted by: Bishop, Cephas Richardson | February 27, 2009, 6:48 pm 6:48 pm
Most people who are technically or computer literate usually are because their job requires it. People who retire or go into politics often (but not always) soon become technically challenged. It is true that the media slams some for a technical gaffe, while letting others slide. I think Biden did get a pass for his “what’s that number for the web site” question.
Posted by: LongT | February 27, 2009, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
“J Moore, a majority of politicians have “glitches” in them”
Agreed.
Sometimes gaffe-tastic pols have a lovable quality about them.
Sometimes they don’t.
For instance, I wonder how the Jindal Katrina story will shake out.
I think it will be minor.
Posted by: Ryan C | February 27, 2009, 7:09 pm 7:09 pm
Go Biden!
Posted by: Common Sense | February 27, 2009, 7:21 pm 7:21 pm
Anybody remember those popular ‘hazmat’ jobs? Green jobs get my vote. What a refreshing change to see people looking forward to good-paying jobs — in THIS country! End H1Bs and outsourcing while you’re at it.
Posted by: Common Sense | February 27, 2009, 7:25 pm 7:25 pm
Robert Reisch, Obama’s economic advisor, said in January that he didn’t want to see the stimulus jobs going to experienced white construction workers but rather to minorities and women.
And he can’t claim he “misspoke” or was misquoted because he later put it on his blog.
Posted by: Peach | February 27, 2009, 7:47 pm 7:47 pm
“What a refreshing change to see people looking forward to good-paying jobs — in THIS country.”
Who is going to give these people that good pay?
Dow down 26% since election day…
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | February 27, 2009, 7:58 pm 7:58 pm
Fascist Hype-
“Who is going to give these people that good pay? Dow down 26% since election day…”
The people that didnt’ find ways to create jobs over the last eight years. The days of Bush fascism are over.
Dow hits bottom. Outlook sunny!
Posted by: Common Sense | February 27, 2009, 8:07 pm 8:07 pm
Biden is a dangerous fool. He has been on the wrong side of history forever, so his experience has little value… he doesn’t appear to have learned a thing.
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Like Obama, he vehemently opposed the highly-successful Iraq “Surge” strategy- instead, Biden favored surrender and came-up with a harebrained proposal to split the country 3-ways.
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Joey Plugs often says things that display a strange disconnect with reality… and an uncomfortable relationship with the truth. They better chain him to a telemprompter every time he heads-out the door.
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Posted by: Reaganite Republican | February 27, 2009, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
Biden:We’re starting to make the investments needed to leave a cleaner world to our children
=========
I keep picturing my cell phone from 15 years ago and wondering if huge investments in “modern” green technology is something future generations will thank us for or giggle at.
Posted by: MayBee | February 27, 2009, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
Ol’ Rush was slamming Joe for giving the website as Recovery.com the other day, when it was Recovery.gov, but then Limbaugh said it was Recovery.org twice in the process of making fun of Joe!
Sarah Palin brought most of the trouble on herself. Even after the election was over she was giving an interview in Alaska after pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey, when all of the time there was some yokel in the background butchering turkeys! She acts totally clueless!
And that Jindal the other night, following Obama’s address – was that a badly programmed robot or was he stoned?
Posted by: Donna Hughes | February 27, 2009, 8:29 pm 8:29 pm
That damn surge was no more responsible for the change than was al Sadr ordering his militia to stand down. And the biggest change was when Petraeus took a hint from TE Lawrence and began to deal with the local sheiks and win them over (or buy them).
Iraq was formed from three left-over vilayets from the demise of the Ottoman Empire after WW1. It never was a cohesive country. Joe’s idea worked with the history of the place.
Posted by: Donna Hughes | February 27, 2009, 8:38 pm 8:38 pm
I think Biden did get a pass for his “what’s that number for the web site” question.
————————————
In the same interview, he mistakenly claimed Louisiana was losing 400 jobs per day.
This was a much more serious error than the website gaffe, and should have received widespread coverage.
Posted by: mad | February 27, 2009, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
Somewhere Jimmy Carter is smiling. Unfortunately his failed policies of the 70′s won’t fare any better this time around. Global warming theory (yes, theory) is starting to be exposed as the politically tainted body of junk science that it is. Obama is simply reaching too far, too fast. I’m thrilled that he’s hitching his wagon to the environmental extremest movement. Once people realize their cost of living will rise astronomically in the form of this massive consumption tax they will demand transparency and accountability from the likes of James Hansen and Michael Mann. In the meantime, buy gold and burn wood!
Posted by: Woody | February 27, 2009, 8:56 pm 8:56 pm
Donna says:
Iraq was formed from three left-over vilayets from the demise of the Ottoman Empire after WW1. It never was a cohesive country. Joe’s idea worked with the history of the place.
==========
How is “Joe’s idea” of splitting Iraq into three countries (drawing lines on a map) any different than several Western leaders drawing lines on a map half way across the globe after WW I? It’s still Imperialism no matter how you slice it. Ever think of asking the Iraqi people what they think?
Posted by: Woody | February 27, 2009, 9:08 pm 9:08 pm
Bottom line, jobs have been sent out of this country in the early 80′s till now. We were displaced workers & had to retrain back then.Same old story & even way worse now. America needs to drill for the oil off the coasts of America, instead of letting other countries get it.
Posted by: from Ohio | February 27, 2009, 9:15 pm 9:15 pm
Joe’s idea was to have three states, each with it’s group – Kurd, Sunni, or Shiite. Each would be responsible for it’s own local government and all would be under a federal government that dealt with national issues.
Since there was a lot of ethnic cleansing going on and people had already pretty much segregated themselves into those three original groups, it seemed like a pretty good idea at a time when there weren’t any other ideas except to keep slogging along and hope for the best.
After all we broke it and we unleashed all of those forces, courtesy of the four horsemen of the apocalypse: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
Posted by: Donna Hughes | February 27, 2009, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm
Now wonder so many people are reading Atlas Shrugged.
I don’t know how Ayn Rand knew in the 1950′s what our country would turn into, but she did.
Anyone who wants a read on how the government is going to continue to punish excellent and success and what it will do to the country and our spirit, just read that book.
Posted by: Peach | February 27, 2009, 9:54 pm 9:54 pm
Ayn Rand also wrote “The Virtue of Selfishness”.
Posted by: Donna Hughes | February 27, 2009, 10:01 pm 10:01 pm
“Dow hits bottom. Outlook sunny!”
Right. I suggest you put your life savings in the Dow companies tomorrow; you’ll be on Easy Street.
Say what you will about the knowledgeable Donna Hughes, she is downright certain that American fighting men and women in Iraq didn’t accomplish anything at all. No, it was the prospect of a potential Messiah that turned it all around…
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | February 27, 2009, 10:14 pm 10:14 pm
Oh Joe is just a lovable goof. At least he is not roasting children over an open fire at the Naval Observatory while sneakily spying on everyone. I’ll take the lulz over the evil hideousness any day.
Posted by: Jenny M | February 27, 2009, 10:19 pm 10:19 pm
When asked what was in the porkulus bill for small businesses,Joe said call me if the bridge over the creek is out and people can’t get to your business.The government will come and fix the bridge.I am not making this up.He really said that. He also told a guy in a wheel chair to stand up at campaign rally.This guy is a Moron.
Posted by: Ronaldus | February 27, 2009, 10:21 pm 10:21 pm
Biden is the worse VP in this history.
Posted by: anonymous | February 28, 2009, 6:07 am 6:07 am
Sarah Palin would have done a better job in selling something as ridiculous and fluffy as this…I just wonder how badly the GaffeMaster will blow it!!
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | February 28, 2009, 7:52 am 7:52 am
Ayn Rand also wrote “The Virtue of Selfishness”.
Posted by: Donna Hughes | Feb 27, 2009 10:01:39 PM
*********
And you find virtue in giving your hard earned dollars to irresponsible people or the government which can’t do anything right?
Posted by: Peach | February 28, 2009, 9:45 am 9:45 am
And you find virtue in giving your hard earned dollars to irresponsible people or the government which can’t do anything right?
*********************************************
Not with the Bush administration, which I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to far longer than the first month of their administration.
Posted by: kat the real one | February 28, 2009, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Green jobs, as I see it, substitute human labor for other forms of energy. This means, for example, that instead of using electricity to pump water from a well, you lower a bucket and pull the water up yourself. This is how we can transform the USA into a third world country.
Posted by: Jack | February 28, 2009, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
Harry Reid finds Americans visiting Washington, DC to be stinky and unkempt. Imagine how he will find them when their bathing and toilet flushing is reduced. I’ll not mention the recommendation for limited toilet tissue usage.
Posted by: mad | February 28, 2009, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
I suggest that we name the Republican Party the Hypocritic Party. It seems to be a common thread with every single one of them including many posters here. They choose party over people every single time, spout the same garbage they have for the last eight years that drove this country into the ground, and since WHEN did the Republicans become the party of conservative spending? Where have some of you people been living the last eight years – on some alternative planet? Bush had a huge surplus in the budget when he was elected and now we are trillions of dollars in debt under his “leadership” – or maybe it was Cheney’s “leadership” – one never knows.
Posted by: sandy | February 28, 2009, 10:01 pm 10:01 pm
Donna Hughes:
Biden’s idea of diving Iraq into three
ethnic groups was and is STUPID!
If we had done what “Dopey Joe”
had suggested the Iranians would be
in control of Iraq and be far more
dangerous than they already are!
Stop drinking the “kool aid” and
open your eyes!
Posted by: reaganfan | February 28, 2009, 11:00 pm 11:00 pm
I meant to write dividing.
Posted by: reaganfan | February 28, 2009, 11:01 pm 11:01 pm
Ayn Rand also wrote “The Virtue of Selfishness”.
Yes! I highly recommend it. In it she explains that the altruist who sacrifices himself to others, and the brute who sacrifices others to himself, are just two sides of the same bad coin. The moral code of self-sacrifice requires both giver and taker, victim and victimizer. It is an inversion of morality.
True morality requires independence, productivity, and, most of all, rationality. The moral man does not sacrifice his happiness for others, nor does he sacrifices others for his gain. He stands on his own two feet, and trades value for value.
This scrupulousness is actually the precondition for a benevolent society. In the US today, we are all being looted for the sake of the “common good” and all it has created is a common feeling of ill will. It’s hard to love your fellow man when he has his hand in your pocket, and we all have our hands in each others’ pockets in one way or another.
Posted by: Ardsgaine | March 1, 2009, 12:32 am 12:32 am
If Biden were a Republican and did not sitteth at the right hand of God, he would be prime real estate, comedy gold if you will, for the entertainment industry.
Posted by: RR GOP | March 1, 2009, 1:22 am 1:22 am
I, for one am happy with our President and Vice President. Everyone really needs to stop comparing them to others especially Palin. Now she is one to criticize. She is so empty headed and it was evident durig the elections and now in her state. I don’t see her getting elected for anything except maybe changing the role of toilet paper for $5.00 per hour at Mcdonalds.
Posted by: Native American | March 1, 2009, 8:12 am 8:12 am
What is the difference between
VP Joe Biden and the late comedian
Curley Howard of the Three Stooges?
Curley Howard was acting! LOL.
Posted by: reaganfan | March 1, 2009, 10:54 pm 10:54 pm
I am not sure why we see more of these reports here from the ABC news team, maybe to help drive traffic to their site or something, but a note to Mr. Tapper and ABC: I come here for Jake Tapper’s more idiosyncratic reporting and commentary. I scroll right past the content that’s been vetted for TV.
Posted by: annie | March 2, 2009, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm