Biden vs. Obama on economy

Something tells me this wasn’t a planned talking point:

“The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there,” Biden said in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “There was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited. Now, that doesn’t — I’m not — it’s now our responsibility.”

“We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package,” Biden said. “The truth of the matter was, no one anticipated, no one expected that that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having to distribute the bulk of money.” [emphasis added]

Three times Biden repeated that the administration misread the economy. That’s a stark departure from the administration’s standard line. Compare Biden’s remarks to what Obama said last week:

Though “we have successfully stabilized the financial markets” and have “started to see some stabilization on housing,” Obama acknowledged that “we are still seeing is too many jobs lost.”

Both Biden and Obama acknowledge that the unemployment rate is too high, but only Biden admitted the administration made a mistake. Expect every Republican to seize on Biden’s remarks in the coming weeks.

If and when the White House proposes a second stimulus, the GOP now has an easy response: Democrats only need a second stimulus because, as Biden admitted, they screwed up the first one.