‘Sheriff Joe’ Biden on Stimulus Funds: ‘I’ve Still Got My Badge On’
EmailABC News' Kristina Wong reports: Today Vice President Joe Biden warned federal agencies that every stimulus dollar must be accounted for, to assure that funds were being used to create jobs and help the economy recover.
“You guys know that when the president gave me the responsibility of dealing with and implementing this recovery act, he called me Sheriff Joe. Well, I've still got my badge on,” Biden said at the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board headquarters with RATB chairman Earl Devaney.
Today the White House released a presidential memorandum directing government departments and agencies to make sure recipients of stimulus funds obligated to file a report on FederalReporting.gov do so, or face penalties “to the fullest extent permitted by law.”
“We still need to know where every dollar went and to — and every recipient that got a dollar,” Biden said. “Not reporting is not acceptable.”
Biden also touted the American Reinvestment Recovery Act, the $787 billion dollar spending initiative passed in early 2009, saying it has helped get people back to work.
“As my grandpop used to say — and you've heard me say this a bunch — the recovery act wasn't the horse designed to carry the whole sleigh. There were a lot of other parts of our economic policy. But this was to get people beginning to get back to work, to save jobs and to begin to invest in the future economic growth we need,” he said.
“And these people are back to work now. Their kids have a sense, for the first time in a long time, that things are going to be okay.”
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‘Sheriff Joe’ Biden on Stimulus Funds: ‘I’ve Still Got My Badge On’…….. Yes we see your badge every time you speak, it’s on your head, cone shaped, and in angled writing is the word “DUNCE”. Now that’s a big f’en deal!!!!
Posted by: pauldia | April 6, 2010, 7:27 pm 7:27 pm
While the obsessive focus on not wasting a single dollar has slowed the deployment of stimulus funds greatly, I am awfully impressed that there have been no reports of dead trees being planted, $800 toilet seats, or bridges to no where. And you know that Republicans are scouring every last dollar of the almost half-billion in spending looking for it. So far the most they came up with was a pittance of refunds sent to prisoners last year (which were caught and returned).
A private corporation would never impose this kind of costly overhead to avoid all risk of ‘funding shrinkage’, but while I doubt it is worth the effort, it has been successful in preventing waste. With hundreds of billions going out, we don’t have stories of even 0.1% of it being wasted.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 6, 2010, 7:43 pm 7:43 pm
Please tell me that Biden is actually playing some role from Zoolander and is not actually VP.
Posted by: welldirected | April 6, 2010, 7:47 pm 7:47 pm
If moonbeam Biden is in charge of the monies it is no wonder why it didnt work. We all know the money was used to pay earmarks off and to keep government employees employed and that is exactly why the stimulus has not worked.
Posted by: Lester | April 6, 2010, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
We all know the money was used to pay earmarks off
Lester | Apr 6, 2010 8:00:14 PM
Could you cite some of the ‘earmarks’ in the simulus bill? Using a standard definition of earmark please (the OMB’s for example, or at least provide your own). I have followed this pretty closely and have not heard any reputable source accuse the stimulus of being riddled with earmarks. Perhaps you meant “pork”, an undefined meaningless term.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 6, 2010, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
To this administration holding people accountable means giving them taxpayer dollars to pay themselves multimillion dollar bonuses, while their company goes bankrupt!
ABCcensor | Apr 6, 2010 8:14:47 PM
Could you provide a citation for that? (Obviously, since you’re saying “this administration” you’re not referring to the first loosely-controlled round of TARP funding dispersed and administered by the Bush administration.)
Posted by: jhw539 | April 6, 2010, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
Got the badge on do you Joe? Is that why congressional districts represented by Democrats get more money than ones represented by Republicans?
Posted by: david | April 6, 2010, 9:05 pm 9:05 pm
Sheriff Joe with his big boy badge on..quotin’ his “grandpop”…If it wasn’t my money he was spendin’ I’d be yeehawin’ my back-side off…but I ain’t..cause it is.
Posted by: cindy | April 6, 2010, 9:10 pm 9:10 pm
Is that why congressional districts represented by Democrats get more money than ones represented by Republicans?
david | Apr 6, 2010 9:05:38 PM
You mean why congressional districts with a portion of a major state capital (which are predominantly Democratic) got more money (since money disbursed to the state governments were assigned to those districts)? The top 19 districts receiving funding are state capitals (which distribute that funding throughout the state), and 15 of them are Democratic districts – including one in Texas.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 6, 2010, 9:27 pm 9:27 pm
A private corporation would never impose this kind of costly overhead
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 6, 2010 7:43:25 PM
That’s easier to do when the ‘overhead’ is tax payer dollars – or didn’t anyone teach you that Congress doesn’t actually have any of it’s own money.
Posted by: For the Record | April 6, 2010, 10:07 pm 10:07 pm
A private corporation would never impose this kind of costly overhead
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 6, 2010 7:43:25 PM
That’s easier to do when the ‘overhead’ is tax payer dollars – or didn’t anyone teach you that Congress doesn’t actually have any of it’s own money.
For the Record | Apr 6, 2010 10:07:40 PM
Exactly, Congress is more concerned about the bad PR from a small amount of waste and fraud than the large cost of eliminating all waste and fraud.
And all money is Congress’s. You’re free to go back to bartering with chickens if you like, I’m kinda fond of the exponential growth in human comfort and life span provided by modern government forms.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 6, 2010, 10:10 pm 10:10 pm
And all money is Congress’s. You’re free to go back to bartering with chickens if you like, I’m kinda fond of the exponential growth in human comfort and life span provided by modern government forms.
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 6, 2010 10:10:36 PM
Wow.
Posted by: For the Record | April 6, 2010, 11:36 pm 11:36 pm
the government takes our money..borrows more using our kids’ projected earnings as collateral-and spends it as they see fit..in this case, almost EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS…dispersed under the watchful eye of Sheriff Joe…JHW, you may be on to something..if this keeps up, we could all be bartering with chickens real soon..
Posted by: cindy | April 6, 2010, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
And all money is Congress’s.
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What do they do to produce it besides take it (tax) from citizens. As far as bad PR if they were really concerned Congress would have changed course months ago. The bad PR is coming and it won’t be from the media it will be the ballot box.
Posted by: GO | April 6, 2010, 11:50 pm 11:50 pm
I’m kinda fond of the exponential growth in human comfort and life span provided by modern government forms.
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 6, 2010 10:10:36 PM
Here’s a good example of the growth of human comfort afforded by the government:
“The state of California’s real unfunded pension debt clocks in at more than $500 billion, nearly eight times greater than officially reported.
…
“To put that number in perspective, it’s almost seven times greater than all the outstanding voter-approved state general obligation bonds in California.
“Why should Californians care? Because this year’s unfunded pension liability is next year’s budget cut to important programs.” -LATimes
Posted by: For the Record | April 6, 2010, 11:57 pm 11:57 pm
Clyde the orangutan would be a better VP than this azzhat. Even if this buffoon finds the waste he himself said would occur nothing will happen his ego will find a way to point the blame elsewhere, it always has. Joey saw the light after graduating next to the bottom of law school and so became a politician LOL another poster boy for term limits.
Posted by: formerdem | April 7, 2010, 6:10 am 6:10 am
Americans are already flooding into doctors’ offices and insurance companies, asking:
“Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?” (McClatchy)
Will Obama remind them that the gravy train doesn’t leave the station until 2014?? Or will he blame Bush for the bill not starting benefits for four years?
Posted by: The People's Kommissariat of Health | April 7, 2010, 8:19 am 8:19 am
“And all money is Congress’s.”
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 6, 2010 10:10:36 PM
No, not the people’s money. We’ll give you what we think you deserve. I’m glad the Socialists on this site are finally being honest.
Posted by: Wealth Redistribution Czar | April 7, 2010, 8:23 am 8:23 am
Seems jhw is gunning for a deputy position under Sheriff Joe B.
ARRA/”Stimulus” has done little/nothing to improve the economy in a meaningful way (but did to some extent shore up state budgets, kicking can down the road)
ARRA/”Stimulus” = Slush fund for Democrat constituencies
ARRA/”Stimulus” = Epic failure for all other Americans
Posted by: tjp612 | April 7, 2010, 9:03 am 9:03 am
Wow, the negativity about Biden saying he will make sure each taxpayer dollar is accounted for, shows one thing.
That no matter what this administration is doing, the far right will object to it. Even when it is a good thing for our country.
Posted by: Lydia | April 7, 2010, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
Wow, the negativity about Biden saying he will make sure each taxpayer dollar is accounted for, shows one thing.
That no matter what this administration is doing, the far right will object to it. Even when it is a good thing for our country.
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What you call negativity most people (independents like myself included) call reality. The press has broken the news about money from the stimulus going to foreign countries, false congressional districts and non existent zip codes. Sheriff Biden hasn’t discovered or said one word about those things. Your premise about his accounting is incorrect based on his performance so far.
Posted by: GO | April 7, 2010, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
GO, try to understand that the recent economic crisis that hit our country went world-wide because our banks sold their banks worthless paper and once our economy took a nosedive, we stopped buying as much goods, so economies almost everywhere suffered greatly.
Just as other countries for the most part didn’t exclude us from their stimulus bills, neither did we.
So when wind turbines were bought, it was put out to bid and European companies won. That is really no surprise since the Bush administration thwarted U.S. companies working on renewables, as Bush favored Big Oil. So of course, U.S. companies are behind on this technology.
As for the stories about inaccurate zip codes, that could be typos anywhere along the way. The important thing is stories are not widespread about cheating with the stimulus money.
As I understand it, individual states sent in projects and plans to request dollars. Those states ‘won’ money and it is also the responsibility of the governors to make sure the project wasn’t bogus and the money was spent for what it was allocated to.
(When compared to how Halliburton ant other contractors spent the billions they received for contracts in Iraq, the stimulus money is spent extremely well.)
Posted by: Lydia | April 7, 2010, 4:18 pm 4:18 pm
Isn’t America a wonderful country? An individual who doesn’t have the mental acumen to clean Porta-Potties ends up as a US Senator and Vice President! What’s next? A community organizer with no practical experience in anything who went through college on on the Affirmative Action program becoming President?
Oh. Wait.
The_Pilgrim
Posted by: The_Pilgrim | July 15, 2010, 8:37 am 8:37 am
What a minute, he said that people are back to work. That’s a lie, unemployment has not gone down.
Posted by: bxnefx | August 3, 2010, 7:10 am 7:10 am