WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration “misread how bad the economy was” but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up.
Does that mean Obama lied? Biden lied? Where’s the outrage?
There is none, which is how it should be. But it is instructive to contrast this with what happened with President Bush. Bush relied on intelligence from the CIA, the French, the British and others. It all pointed in the same direction. The information was shared with Congress and there was overwhelming bipartisan support authorizing the use of force in Iraq with 40% of Democrats voting in favor in the House and 58% in the Senate. The senior members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Republicans and Democrats saw the intelligence. When it was later determined that weapons of mass destruction could not be found, the mantra was “Bush lied.” The Democrats hid under their desks rather than refute that remark.
In the case of the stimulus, the projections of unemployment capping out at 8% rather than where it is today, prompting Biden’s mea culpa, was entirely within the control of the administration. It wasn’t corroborated by other nations’ agencies. In addition, every Republican in the House voted against it and all but three in the Senate. So in which situation would there be a more credible charge of lying?
But unlike the Main Stream Media and the statists, I am reluctant accuse them of deliberately lying about their policies. Perhaps, the aforementioned Main Stream Media and the statists will show some restraint in the future and return to the days of a spirited but honest debate on the issues? I’m not holding my breath.
