Biden's NYT Op-Ed

Vice-President Biden used an op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times to detail, “What You May Not Know About the Recovery.” His premise:

Notwithstanding this progress, the nature of the Recovery Act remains misunderstood by many, and misconstrued by others: critics have suggested that the entire $787 billion is being spent on pet programs. As the person leading the administration’s efforts to put the Recovery Act into effect, I want to set the record straight.

As expected, the piece was not much more than fluff in favor of the stimulus. Explaining away the things that haven’t quite worked out so well and hyping up the few anecdotal positive results.

As example of the former, from Mike Allen’s Sunday Playbook:

SHOT -- THE VICE PRESIDENT TODAY: '[T]he act was intended to provide steady support for our economy over an extended period - not a jolt that would last only a few months.'

CHASER 1-- THE VICE PRESIDENT in March: 'The Recovery Act, as we call it, provides a necessary jolt to our economy.'

CHASER 2 -- PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA in November: '[W]e have a consensus, which is pretty rare, between conservative economists and liberal economists, that we need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape.'

CHASER 3 -- PRESIDENT OBAMA, at his first press conference: '[W]ith the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life.'