Porkulus above the pay grade of its chief?
posted at 5:10 pm on June 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
We laughed over Joe Biden’s gaffe yesterday regarding a Porkulus-funded tunnel in New Jersey, but the American Spectator points out another that most of us missed on the same conference call. When pressed for supporting data on Obama administration claims of 600,000 jobs being “saved or created” by the stimulus package in the near future, the man in charge of the stimulus claimed ignorance:
Vice President Joe Biden said on a Monday conference call with reporters that it was “above [his] pay grade” to explain in detail the methodology the White House uses to estimate the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus legislation, but stressed that there had been no “reasonable” challenges to the estimates.
During the call, Biden said that the stimulus package, which was signed into law in February, saved or created 150,000 in its first 100 days, and he outlined White House plans to accelerate the pace so that 600,000 more jobs will be saved or created in the second 100 days this summer.
Asked by Jonathan Riskind of the Columbus Dispatch to explain how the White House determined these numbers, Biden said that the Council of Economic Advisers makes its estimates based on measuring what the U.S. employment level would have been without the stimulus, and then comparing it to the nation’s actual employment level.
“I’m sorry I’m not an economist,” Biden said as he was describing the methodology. “My background is foreign policy and the constitution. “
Of course, that’s why Barack Obama put Biden in charge of the economic stimulus project. It makes as much sense as:
- Appointing an auto czar who never worked in the auto industry
- Assigning the GM bankruptcy to a 31-year-old law-school dropout with no experience in cars or Wall Street or bankruptcies
- Picking a GM board chair with no experience in the auto industry, because GM isn’t just about carmaking, or something
Biden wound up defending the numbers because he hadn’t heard any “reasonable” challenges to them. Since economics is above his pay grade, who is Biden to know what criticisms are “reasonable”? While some in the White House press corps have been asking for the actual data behind these claims, though, Biden is mostly right that the national media hasn’t really challenged the administration on their claims. Maybe that’s above their pay grade.
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Preach it brother. The Founders were no dummies. They understand that leaving things up to man would ultimately lead to disaster. But we have moved so far from the original meaning of the Constitution that we have allowed man to rule over us with the predictable results.
NotCoach on May 24, 2013 at 6:45 PM
Better watch who you call or text or email now, Erika. And, stay off those adult websites, by all means. Big Brother’s awatchin’. ;-)
TXUS on May 24, 2013 at 6:52 PM
Whether he was involved in these scandals from the beginning or not, one thing that is certain: his subsequent behavior in protecting, lying, stalling, etc makes Barack Obama the direct owner of them.
Rich H on May 24, 2013 at 6:54 PM
Your problem, Erika, is that you are a reasonable person looking at the issue in a reasonable way. Unfortunately, there is a critical mass of people who are not reasonable and believe that the problem is that the government is not big enough and is not spending enough money.
catsandbooks on May 24, 2013 at 6:55 PM
I always wondered how Germany fell for Nazism in the 30s. How could they be so stupid?
Ouch.
faraway on May 24, 2013 at 6:55 PM
Bobby, I love ya man! I voted for you when you first ran for Congress. But you’re wrong here. It isn’t a lack of trust in the American people it is contempt for the American people. An attitude that the American public isn’t intelligent enough to know what is good for them.
Happy Nomad on May 24, 2013 at 7:01 PM
The Big Crime Syndicate of Obama should be the biggest loser.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:11 PM
Good stuff Bobby. Keep honing that message. Hoping for big things from him in 2016.
can_con on May 24, 2013 at 7:11 PM
Bobby must have been listening to Rush this week, because he said much the same thing: trying to pin it on Obama is not working; instead, it all shows the failure of liberalism and big government writ large.
This is it exactly. Contempt. These government types are those who wouldn’t bat an eye to hustle us all off to “reeducation camps.”
PatriotGal2257 on May 24, 2013 at 7:13 PM
Even small government would be bad if run by criminals. Jindal seems to have tunnel vision.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:13 PM
Jindal seems to be implicitly saying that government is so big it got out of Obama’s control. Bull.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:17 PM
I’ll take a small government run by criminals any day over the bloated and corrupt mess we have now.
NotCoach on May 24, 2013 at 7:18 PM
Then they are both simply Obama apologists.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:20 PM
And take being shot with a .22 over being shot with a 30.06. I prefer neither.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:22 PM
Obama is a much bigger target than big government. Only fools can not see this.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:24 PM
I thought Jindal was just saying we needed to stop arguing about big government because it was a loser? Pfft.
echosyst on May 24, 2013 at 7:27 PM
We will always have big government. Even under Reagan we had big government. He didn’t/couldn’t even get rid of the Dept of “Education”. Now is not the time to turn all batteries at big government. At least 5 of 6 guns should be aimed and firing at Obama. If Limbaugh and Jindal are not up to the task, they should get the hell out of the way.
VorDaj on May 24, 2013 at 7:29 PM
…you’re not faraway at all!…you’re right on!
KOOLAID2 on May 24, 2013 at 7:30 PM
VorDaj, saying that Rush n Jindal should “step aside” simply becuase they dont go far enough, INHO, isn’t reason enough. Besides who else out there do you think has the platform or the common sense governance to at least get ‘our’ side of the conversation out there, esepcially to those that we’d like to convince? If you got a candidate in mind, im sure we could find a few holes in *thier* Geopolitical theory also.
BlaxPac on May 24, 2013 at 7:46 PM
I won’t go into details about my 44 years Military and Civilian experience with Viet Nam and Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American Society. I do agree that the Democrats, who were responsible for getting into that war and after killing a few million S E Asians and including non combat deaths over 100,000 Americans, betrayed our Vietnamese and Cambodian allies and sabotaged the South Vietnamese War effort insuring the defeat of South Viet Nam in 1974 and 1975. Yes, I was there at that time.
That said, over the last 30 years the current Vietnamese has been struggling to dismantle what was a very authoritarian Communist Government. From my first post War visit in 1995 till now(I’ve retired here), Viet Nam has made astonishing progress in dismantling the old regime. Except for Reagan, we Americans have mostly gone the other way.
Think about it.
Linh_My on May 24, 2013 at 7:53 PM
False equivalency. A better one is a million .22s vs. 1 30.06. I’ll take my chances with the single 30.06. Not only that we can better respond to and destroy the single 30.06.
NotCoach on May 24, 2013 at 7:54 PM
and that was before it really got entrenched—5-6 years into it.
arnold ziffel on May 24, 2013 at 7:55 PM
test
RickB on May 24, 2013 at 8:43 PM
F. Hayak wrote in his book “The Road To Serfdom” that Hitler was voted into power by large numbers of “docile and gullible” people who believed the lies (propaganda)told by Hitler and his elites.
Sound familiar? History repeats.
nofreelunch on May 24, 2013 at 11:02 PM
Lord have mercy, here I am defending or explaining Germans.
Adolph Hitler never got a clear majority in an election. He sorta grabbed power by exploiting deals, tricks, vacuums and technicalities. That aspect may now in replay before us.
Howover, I never heard of any elite behind him.
He was a thug, soldier and street fighter.
Unless OFA takes to the streets and Obama starts looking to build a vengeful, word dominating America, the two have little in common except a love of government power.
IlikedAUH2O on May 25, 2013 at 12:03 AM
Well that in itself, and there are other things, is an awful lot.
VorDaj on May 25, 2013 at 1:33 AM
You know. My maid understands this may be one of the most dangerous, egregious, undermining of The Constitution since the Japanese internment. But neither Congress, The Senate, nor Obama seem to get it. This can destroy the nation.
pat on May 25, 2013 at 2:16 AM
Well, they did vote for Øbama – twice. Maybe there’s something to that. :)
The last I checked, Øbama is not up for reelection. We certainly need to pound him but also those who think like him (you know, big govt types).
Odysseus on May 25, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Lots of blah, blah, blah…because in the back of the Republican’s mind is that some day they will be back in the White House and they will do everything Obama is doing. Any criticism will be met with “Obama did the same thing and no one cared, so we can do it, too.”
albill on May 25, 2013 at 8:58 AM
Beyond that, Obama has benefited from a lot of unethical behavior by liberals in general (and in government specifically). He is more post turtle than mastermind. His culpability is probably mostly in implicitly endorsing this kind of behavior in his speeches. He has a history of turning a blind eye to what others do to win his elections for him.
Count to 10 on May 25, 2013 at 9:07 AM
Bobby “BJ” Jindal: blah, blah, blah, big government is bad, blah, blah, blah, American flag, blah, blah, blah, Obama sucks, blah, blah, blah, the people, blah, blah, blah. This guy NEVER says anything new. Suck it, BJ.
HiJack on May 25, 2013 at 9:43 AM
Absolutely, positively. We can bank on it.
HiJack on May 25, 2013 at 9:45 AM
You’re missing the point Erika Johnsen: Takers gotta take. They don’t need no ‘compelling reason’ – as long as they’re on the receiving end. It’s why they vote democrat.
locomotivebreath1901 on May 25, 2013 at 9:51 AM
People are so afraid of calling Obama Cheat, liar, crook or whatever name that’s appropriate. If people had been this kind to Richard Nixon his face would be on Mt. Rushmore by now.
Herb on May 25, 2013 at 9:53 AM
Calling this government paternalistic is cowardly. This government is authoritarian and moving toward tyrannical.
The media are not in bed with the left; they are the left. They are the same people.
InterestedObserver on May 25, 2013 at 10:15 AM
We’ve killed 55,000,000 of our children.
We’re not much better than the Nazis.
itsnotaboutme on May 25, 2013 at 3:59 PM