Fact Checking Biden on the Stimulus

The Associated Press took issue with some claims made by Vice President Joe Biden in his first quarterly report on the President's $787 billion stimulus package. The AP story, posted on Google News, says that in the report Biden "...uses anecdotes to paint a glowing picture of an economy on the rebound. In reality, the picture is incomplete and the colors far more muted."

Not pulling any punches, the AP goes on: "Capturing the full effect of the stimulus at this early stage is difficult, but the administration has set high bars for success. In championing those successes, however, the White House plays a little loose with the facts."

So what did the VP say that the Associated Press disputes? Here are a few:

--Biden: claimed first-time homebuyers using the stimulus' tax credit were "driving increased activity in the home sales market" and that the increased activity was prompting hiring in the industry.

**The AP responds with the following: sales of existing homes have dropped 3 percent; new home sales are down 0.6 percent, and the number of jobs in the real estate industry has dropped by 20,000. In summary, the AP says "There are signs that the housing market is improving. But the numbers suggest that if the market bottomed out, it did so in January, before the stimulus was passed."

--Biden: claimed employment agencies were putting more workers in jobs and that demand for workers had increased since February.

**The AP says that an interview with a New Orleans employment service manager cited by Biden might be true, "...but it's impossible to extrapolate that any further, even just to New Orleans. The city has lost more than 200 jobs since February. Overall, Louisiana lost 16,085 jobs over the same span, according to the Department of Labor."

--White House: claimed the stimulus had created or saved 150,000 jobs.

**The AP says: "There are few hard numbers when it comes to tracking stimulus jobs. The Obama administration numbers are based on estimates by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, based largely on a formula Obama's transition team put forward. It estimates the effect of tax breaks, government spending and social programs on job growth. Spending money will put people to work. But spending has a cost. At some point, Washington will have to pay for this program, either by raising taxes or interest rates, and those policies typically hurt job growth. The Obama administration's job data do not take into consideration this back-end cost, an omission some economists, particularly conservative economists, say is a flaw in the analysis."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gII_eXwpVyrwITxM1gouPdCc--RgD985HVI00