For the man who was part of the team that set unrealistic expectations in order to get their jobs and then upon seeing that they were now in power tried to taper down the expectations. Then when a legislative challenge came up (the Stimulus) they started making promises again - I have little empathy for their present will to be more circumspect.
Ultimately - it ain't about them. The government and the president has a limited ability to create sustainable jobs without burning a hole in the federal deficit. I am more concerned with the individual people who retain the belief that "all things are possible via government".
In my view the long held economic theory learned from the "New Deal" that we can "spend ourselves" out of a recession/depression is going to be disproved in that today's structural imbalance and long term debt vastly exceeds the nominal amounts seen in the past. The claims that on a percentage basis these are not the greatest debt load ever seen is going to be smashed because America's industrial base was on the incline back then compared to today where the rest of the world is beginning to stand tall.
Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession."
Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost.
"We inherited a godawful mess," he said, adding there was "no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost."
Claims for jobless benefits fell by the largest number in two months last week, but were still high enough to signal weak job growth. Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits.
Biden said today the economy is improving and noted that in the past four quarters, there has been 4 percent growth in the economy. Over the last five months, more than 500,000 private sector jobs were created.
"We know that's not enough," the vice president said.
Last week the White House put out a Recovery and Reinvestment Act update claiming that between 2.2 million and 2.8 million jobs were either saved or created because of the stimulus as of March 2010. In signing the Recovery Act into law on Feb 17, 2009, Mr. Obama said the measure "will create or save 3-and-a-half million jobs over the next two years."
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