NYC Letter: Joe On The Job

Day 39 of CHOPE

Here in Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort -- because nobody messes with Joe.

President Obama,
explaining that every spending junkyard
needs its junkyard dog
JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ADDRESS
WASHINGTON February 24, 2009 (White House)

Louisiana Governor Jindal gave the Reublican response, criticizing the stimulus plan for too much spending and too little stimulating. That in turn provoked this response the next day from Joe "Hi-Q" Biden on CBS's The Early Show:

In Louisiana there's [sic] 400 people a day losing their jobs. What's he doing? What's the answer?

Louisiana CBS affiliate KSLA did a fact check of the publicly available numbers.

REALITY CHECK FOR VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

SHREVEPORT February 25, 2009 (KSLA) - In giving the Republican response to President Obama's speech Tuesday night, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal pointed out fundamental differences in how Republicans and Democrats see the economy. Wednesday morning on the CBS Early Show, Vice President Joe Biden asked:

But what I don't understand from Governor Jindal is what would he do? In Louisiana, there's 400 people a day losing their jobs. What's he doing?

But that claim is wrong if you look at the numbers from the Louisiana Workforce Commission. Patty Granier, Louisiana Workforce Commission:

In December, Louisiana was the only state in the nation besides the District of Columbia, according to the national press release, that added employment over the month. ... The state gained 3,700 jobs for the seasonally adjusted employment [accordingly to the most recent figures].

Those numbers are available on Louisiana's employment website, laworks.net. Also available on the site are the state's latest unemployment statistics, statistics that appear to directly contradict what the vice president said Wednesday morning.

The latest statistics show from the week ending January 17th, there were 4,527 claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana. For the next week, that number dropped to 4,179.

It's unclear where the vice president got his unemployment figures from.

This was the very same Early Show appearance in which Mr. Biden couldn't recall the name or location of the administration's stimulus accountabily Web site, flailing about for the Web site "number" until someone off-camera fed him the address (recovery.gov).

Again on the same show, here is Mr. Biden answering a small business owner "looking for clear details about how the stimulus package is really going to help small business". Mr. Biden:

I would recommend that woman call my office directly, and I will be able to guide her as to what pieces of this package would be directly helpful to her. For example, it may very well be that she's in a circumstance where she is not able, her customers aren't able to get to her, there's no transit capability, the bridge going across the creek to get to her business needs repair, may very well be that she's in a position where she is unable to access the -- her energy costs are so high by providing smart meters, by being able to bring down the cost of her workforce.

This answer is so astonishingly stupid, you may question whether you have heard or read Mr. Biden correctly.

We are amazed to learn that oversight of the government $787B candystore leaves Mr. Biden plenty of time to take personal calls from owners of America's 27 million small businesses.

But what truly is astonishing is the Vice President's conception of the stimulus plan's benign synchronicity. Any funded project under the stimulus plan helps small businesses, because it helps someone, which helps everyone. This is stimulus by six degrees of separation. Hang in there, eventually a stimulus benefit will appear. Tax refunds to tax filers who pay no taxes? Hey, maybe they'll use that money to buy something your company makes or sells to someone else to sell. Money to fight global warming? With a cooler planet, fuel bills go up -- which is great if your small business is a home fueling company. If you are not a home fueling company, then you are on the little discussed sacrifice end of stimulus.

Reason.TV pays a tribute here to the man whose I-Q is probably much higher than yours.

CHOPE.

Working knowledge. Getting it right. Impending doom.