Biden is 'tanking' worse than the economy

There was a headline on the Drudge report yesterday referring to Joe Biden telling George Stephanopoulus that the economy was tanking. From ABC news:

Vice President-Elect Joe Biden said the U.S. economy is in danger of "absolutely tanking" and will need a second stimulus package in the $600-billion to $700-billion range.

"The economy is in much worse shape than we thought it was in," Biden told me during an exclusive interview -- his first since becoming vice president-elect-- to air this Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"There is no short run other than keeping the economy from absolutely tanking. That's the only short run," Biden told me.

The interesting thing about Biden's comment is that there is no interesting thing. His analysis is based on nothing and contains no reference to anything intellectual as the basis for his line of reasoning. Try this quote:

Every single person I've spoken to agrees with every major economist. There is going to be real significant investment, whether it's $600 billion or more, or $700 billion, the clear notion is, it's a number no one thought about a year ago," he said.

"Every single person" agrees with "every major economist". This statement is the classic Joe Biden rubbish. Doesn't he remember that a child he told his mother that "everybody" was doing it, and she probably responded with "name three". And his sweeping generalization wouldn't be as bad if this were not so important and his statements so obviously wrong.

The Volokh Conspiracy refers in this post to a summary of economists and their opinion of the original congressional bailout. As you will clearly note in this article and this document from the leading economists, there is no clear agreement. And that was in October. I guarantee you that the "agreement" has severely deteriorated since then.

While Biden's childish reasoning may be acceptable in a debate of global warming "everyone believes it and if you don't you are a neanderthal" among his ultra liberal social circuit, it doesn't cut it as a Vice President-elect. He better figure out soon that while he can make up stories when debating a Republican Vice Presidential candidate who the press hates and get away with it, he can't do it in the real world.

Note to Joe: Grow up and get serious.

Read the ABC article here.

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