» » Administration Touts Report Saying Stimulus Responsible For Up To 3.6 Million Jobs

Administration Touts Report Saying Stimulus Responsible For Up To 3.6 Million Jobs

(RTTNews) – Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday hailed a report showing that the economic stimulus and recovery act passed in the early days of the administration was responsible for saving or creating between 2.5 and 3.6 million jobs so far.

Biden, who President Barack Obama charged with overseeing the efficient implementation of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said the administration was moving the country in the right direction.

“What we’re all about today is not to say we have solved the problem,” he said. “Over 8 million jobs were lost in this great recession. Eight million. No one . thinks we can solve it all at one time.”

He added, “Is there reason to be hopeful? My argument is that there is a lot more work to be done but there is reason to be hopeful.”

Underscoring the depths of the economic problems the administration inherited, Biden noted that the economy has gone from shedding jobs to creating them with the nation’s gross domestic product on the rise.

“Folks, this is because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in large part,” he said. “The GDP is between 2.7 and 3.2 percent higher because of one thing: the Recovery Act.”

He added, “To put it another way, we would be barely growing at all were it not to have passed in the first place.”

Biden added that the investments in infrastructure and new technologies, which with aid to state and local governments and tax cuts made up roughly a third of the bill, have effectively leveraged private funds that had previously been sitting on the sidelines.

“The only way back is through free enterprise and the private sector,” he said. “This isn’t big government spending, this is about getting the economy growing through seed money.”

Citing President Lincoln’s investments in the railroads during the civil war and the Eisenhower Administration’s investment in the Advanced Research Projects Agency that would ultimately lead to the development of the internet, Biden said there was nothing new about government investment to spur innovation like the administration’s green energy efforts.

“Once these companies see government jump in to clean energy, they’re much more confident about jumping in themselves,” he said.”With more private investment like this comes more innovation and growth and most importantly more jobs.”

Biden also took aim at GOP critics of the stimulus proposal, noting that he found it strange that Republicans would so fiercely oppose tax credits for clean energy innovation.

“I know what they’re against, but I don’t know what they’re for,” he said. “All we’re doing is just following a long tradition of presidents who have helped businesses invest, provided the seed money to get whole new industries growing, creating not only jobs now but jobs in the future.”

He added, “Government plants seeds, the private sector makes them grow. . That’s how we’ve led the world in the past. That’s how we’re going to dominate it again.”

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