Top 3 Biden Quotes of the Week

August 5, 11:32 AMJoe Biden ExaminerJennn Stachowski

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#1: The Recovery Act

 “I can tell you today, without reservation, the Recovery Act is working.’’ (8/4/09)

 According to the Commerce Department, our economy has only shrunk by 1%, which is “cause for celebration.” Of course, there is that little problem of unemployment… that has grown every month since the stimulus has passed so that the national average is now 9.5%. Have they really truncated the bleeding or are they just staving off the crisis? Widespread unemployment and middle class poverty is a real problem. Didn’t they study the French Revolution? Perhaps it’s time to start considering how they can create a more business-friendly market and enable employers to offer more work.

 #2: The Cash For Clunkers Program

 "I think it would be hard to tell ... the thousands of people who have just traded in gas guzzlers for more efficient cars that this is having no impact.”

 The Cash For Clunkers program, which awards consumers $3,500 - $4,500 for their old crappy cars, has been granted a $2 million extension, on top of the $1 million that’s already been doled out (in hardly more than a week!) Perhaps this is the most successful stimulus yet, as a quarter of a million Americans raced in to trade their old inefficient vehicles for newer cars. According to Press Secretary Gibbs, 83% of the vehicles traded in were trucks and SUVs and 60% of the new purchases were smaller fuel-efficient passenger cars. While the purchases will undoubtedly stimulate the economy, some senators are concerned. As Richard Shelby (R-AL) said, “People want to know what’s going to be next. Cash for shoes? Cash for groceries?”

 #3: Race in America

"Twenty percent of all recovery act small-business loans and guarantees have gone to minority-owned businesses -- nobody knows about that. Today's news is a glimmer of hope we're putting the brakes on the recession, we're lifting ourselves out of the black hole. Housing starts are up this month. ... We're beginning to move in the direction we have to." (7/31/09, Urban League)

Oh wonderful… more cannon fodder for Glenn Beck, who already thinks Obama “hates white people!” Yet, you have to admit this announcement was fortuitously timed – just one day after the press-heralded meeting (known as “Beer Summit”) between President Obama, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley. It looks like Biden is the wing-man for Obama’s moment of acknowledgement that race is still a problem in America. They may not have time for this issue right now, but they want people of all races to approve of them in the polls and “work toward securing a stronger America.”

 Biden’s new rhetoric is also interesting to look at. While they first discussed helping all those Americans who were “caught in between the cracks,” Biden clarifies: “What part of this act is about was not keeping people from falling through the cracks, but keeping them from falling in a deep black hole.” He adds that he “doesn’t want to exaggerate the progress” but it is, at least, “real.”