Biden on the Recovery Act: “If It Fails, I’m Dead”
EmailABC News’ Karen Travers reports: On a conference call today, Vice President Biden told 30 of the nation’s governors that if the Recovery Act fails, he’s “dead.” Biden was providing an update to the governors (and if they couldn’t make it, their Lt. Governor or senior staffer) on the Recovery Act and make sure they were prepared to submit reports next month detailing how stimulus money was spent and how many jobs were created by the funding. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) told the Vice President he couldn’t express how much he and his fellow governors appreciate Biden’s interest. “Pure self-interest, Jay. If it fails, I’m dead,” Biden quipped. The conference call invitation was sent to 55 states and territories and if a governor could not join, a Lt. Governor, Chief of Staff or other staff member called in. Louisiana was the only state to not have a participant on the conference call. On Friday the Obama Administration will launch an updated Recovery.gov website to better coordinate the required data coming in from funding recipients and state and local agencies in October. About 150,000 recipients of federal stimulus money will be required to file detailed reports on how they have spent the money and how many jobs were created as a result. At the end of October the data will all be available at Recovery.gov, including all changes and corrections made to the reports during the review period. Today Biden said the reporting is a “massive undertaking” but implored the governors to make sure the data their states are submitting is accurate. He said the updated web site for reporting data is user-friendly, even for someone like himself who is not tech-savvy. -Karen Travers
Sen. DeMint: GOP Race Could Go Until Convention 
Obama Avoids Questions on Contraception Rule
Better start measuring the suit.
Posted by: Jeff | September 24, 2009, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
If $787B for “Recovery” was so great, why stop there…pass another for $100T and be really really really make things better.
Posted by: free_dude | September 24, 2009, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm
I have to agree with Jeff on here comment.LOL
Posted by: Joeray | September 24, 2009, 9:22 pm 9:22 pm
Joe, I hope you have your funeral arrangements made. Housing down, unemployment up, more massive layoffs coming, utility companies planning on massive cuts…..small businesses filing for Chapter 11 in record numbers, foreclosures still going through the roof….stimulus was a giant waste of BILLIONS.
Sorry, Joe, but the sympathy ploy will not force the governors to fatten up the pitiful economic numbers. I just pray to God that this administration doesn’t live up to its past and pass MORE stimulus bills. NO to bailing out newspapers, NO to bailing out ANYONE else. the surest way to ensure a republican take over for the next election is to keep spending like drunken sailors. STOP IT NOW
Posted by: Kim J | September 24, 2009, 9:30 pm 9:30 pm
Despite the naysayers and even the Vice President this package is and will be a success, unemployment will drop just under 7% next year.
Posted by: reachingout2u | September 24, 2009, 9:48 pm 9:48 pm
“Despite the naysayers and even the Vice President this package is and will be a success, unemployment will drop just under 7% next year.”
LOL! Obama’s own advisors are in the “naysayer” camp.
On 9/11/09, Dr. Larry Summers, the chair of President Obama’s National Economic Council, said: “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high and will on all forecasts remain unacceptably high for a number of, for a number of years.”
Posted by: Jenn | September 24, 2009, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm
Been nice knowing you Joe, what a waste of money. Although at the rate the administration is going; Backing a Chavez wanna be in Hondurous after he violated their constitution. By the way their government asked for a representative so they could show you whats going on, but since they are not a brutal dictatorship like Iran you won’t talk to them. Stabing our east european allies in the back by unilaterally dumping on them. Repeatedly getting the facts wrong on the health care debate, but who notices things like cost or if grandma or anybody else will be able to keep their insurance. Now your trying to find an excuse to cut and run in Afganistan. By the way tell your boss it was George W. Bush who found a responsible way to end the war in Iraq, it was called the “Surge”. How about Cap and Tax, A disasterous Tax to be used as a make believe solution for a make believe problem. There hasn’t been any Global Warming man made or other wise for at least 7 years. That it was ever man made is junk science.
Joe you have alot more to worry about than the Already failed Recovery Act (Slush Fund) and so do the American People.
Posted by: Philip V. | September 24, 2009, 10:06 pm 10:06 pm
This is Biden’s way of telling the governors to please fudge your reports to make me look good… do what you have to but please, make me look good.
So expect a bogus report of upswing in many states…
The Obama administration will lie, so the real truth will never be known.
Posted by: NewIndependent | September 24, 2009, 10:10 pm 10:10 pm
So much hate, so much sarcasm, so much
cynicism. So little regard for anyone but themselves and their pocketbooks. The Republican party of 2009.
Posted by: B.Bear | September 24, 2009, 10:23 pm 10:23 pm
I don’t want Joe dead! But there’s no way a package written by the Apollo group as a way of paying back left wing cronies could possibly stimulate the economy.
Posted by: Elle | September 24, 2009, 10:27 pm 10:27 pm
You have to love his confidence. Is he looking for the reports to be tilted in a way that makes the recovery act succeed?
Posted by: Francine | September 24, 2009, 10:37 pm 10:37 pm
>>So much hate, so much sarcasm, so much
cynicism. So little regard for anyone but themselves and their pocketbooks. The Republican party of 2009.<<
Waaaahhh!!!! I thought you Demonrats had all the answers to our problems?!
Posted by: Ronnie Van Zant | September 24, 2009, 10:51 pm 10:51 pm
Ron, thanks for the reply. You just made by point. Dems may have “some” of the answers, but Repub-corporatist will never accept any change that hurts their pocketbooks. Oh, by the way, where in my post does it say I’m a Democrat? dI’m also a little tired of Tapper’s Biden Gaff Obsession. Honestly, its a little prissy.
Posted by: B.Bear | September 24, 2009, 11:09 pm 11:09 pm
Repub-corporatist will never accept any change that hurts their pocketbooks.
Posted by: B.Bear |
Is that different from Democ-corporatist?
Posted by: Foghorn Leghorn | September 24, 2009, 11:56 pm 11:56 pm
i love how jindal skipped the call.
Posted by: robin | September 25, 2009, 1:01 am 1:01 am
Help me George Soros! You’re my only hope!
—Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party’s harsh rhetoric about big business.
The trend is a marked reversal from recent history, in which Democrats have erased the GOP’s long-standing fundraising advantage. In the first six months of 2009, Democratic campaign committees’ receipts have dropped compared with the same period two years earlier.
The vast majority of those declines were accounted for by the absence of large donors who, strategists say, have shut their checkbooks in part because Democrats have heightened their attacks on the conduct of major financial firms and set their sights on rewriting the laws that regulate their behavior.—
Posted by: Libs, and the Lying Liars Who Elect Them | September 25, 2009, 9:00 am 9:00 am
I guess I’d like to know what the time table and criteria for success is? Does the success include hiring government workers or do they have to be private sector jobs. I guess if the Recovery Act had a chance at failure, why wouldn’t we have reacted to that and developed some alternative plans that promoted success. From my perspective it sure doesn’t feel like the Recovery Act is doing much of anything.
Posted by: jim | September 25, 2009, 9:20 am 9:20 am
Hate to tell Joe it has failed.
Posted by: DANIEL | September 25, 2009, 9:47 am 9:47 am
What a totally self-centered statement to make, me-me-me, how about the unemployed who voted you in office based upon a promise given by the current Administration to make this stimulus work..Ummmm not REAL concerned about your feelings Biden…stop crying and MAKE IT WORK, YOU OWE TO THE PEOPLE WHO PUT YOU AND OBAMA IN OFFICE AND FUTURE GENERATIONS WHO WILL PAYING THE TAB THROUGH HIGHER TAXES………
Posted by: Parallex View | September 25, 2009, 2:45 pm 2:45 pm
BIDEN TAKE OFF THE SHEEP CLOTHING AND EXPOSE YOUR TRUE SELF AS REPUBLICAN.
YOU CAME TO GEORGIA WHY DID YOU NOT AK THE GOVENOR WHY HE DID NOT TAKE THE STIMULUS MONEY? WE HAVE LOST CHLDREN
AMERICA INFRASTRUCTURE IS DELAPIDATED
Posted by: nina | September 25, 2009, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
note to Joe: It ain’t lookin’ good for ya buddy.
Posted by: tc | September 25, 2009, 6:21 pm 6:21 pm
B.Bear:
Most people are beyond counting
Biden’s gaffs!
It is now abundantly clear that
VP Joe Biden is a Moron!
The stimulus package which was passed
in February of this year has not worked
and will not work.
Only about 15-20 percent of the money has been spent and very little to
create jobs.
It was nothing more than another
pork-barrel waste of the taxpayers
money. You Dems are going to pay
Big-Time next year! Count on it!
Posted by: reaganfan | September 26, 2009, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
“The stimulus package which was passed
in February of this year has not worked
and will not work.”
38% of Americans agree with you. 47% do not.
A recent NBC/WSJ poll asked: “Do you think that the economic stimulus legislation is beginning to help improve the economy, will help improve the economy in the future, or will it not help improve the economy?”
20% said Beginning to help improve the economy
27% said Will help improve the economy in the future
38% said Will not help improve the economy
Posted by: Numeros | September 26, 2009, 9:21 pm 9:21 pm
GOOD! It’s bad enough that this buffoon is second banana. He is equally as incompetent as Palin.
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:10 am 3:10 am
It doesn’t take floppy shoes and funny noses. To know what a clown this VP is.
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:19 am 3:19 am
Governor McDonnell, Governor Christie.
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:28 am 3:28 am
Worst VPOTUS ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:32 am 3:32 am
Start drafting your concession speeches! Your winning years are over!
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:33 am 3:33 am
Put an “R” in the middle of moon, and you’ll know what Biden and most of the Dems are.
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:36 am 3:36 am
It doesn’t have to!
Posted by: JV | September 27, 2009, 3:37 am 3:37 am
We may see recovery because when you hit bottom there is only one direction, but recovery has nothing to do with Obama or Biden.
They are pushing up the already miserable deficit and debt. They and their congress now own the debt!
Bush did us no favors, but this bunch has multiplied the spending.
Posted by: Ed Taylor | September 27, 2009, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
Numeros, since when does opinion determine truth? The stimulus is either working or it is not. It doesn’t matter what people think.
My _opinion_ is that it is/was a gargantuan waste of money.
The _truth_ is that the economy would have/will recover eventually – regardless of what anyone does.
Has the stimulus helped speed that process? Who knows? Anyone who says they do is expressing an opinion.
If yes, is it worth the cost? Again, it’s impossible to know.
Posted by: mrsizer | September 28, 2009, 6:09 pm 6:09 pm