GOP Leader Slams Biden's 'Misreading' of Economy

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), a member of the House Republican leadership, lashed out at Vice President Joe Biden's comments that the Obama administration underestimated just how bad the economy would get. "The truth is," Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday, "we and everyone else misread the economy."

"There wasn't any misreading of the economy," Cantor said to reporters this morning. "What the president and the administration did was, they mis-wrote the stimulus bill and got the stimulus wrong. We now find ourselves in a place that the administration promised we wouldn't be."

Cantor said that rather than saving and creating jobs, the $787 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress in February only grew the deficit and the size of government. Cantor suggested that the next step for Congress should be relief for small businesses by exempting 20 percent of their income from taxes, and making more credit available. He also said passing a second stimulus bill like the first one would only compound the problem.

"This administration has tried to do too much too soon," Cantor said. "We ought to focus on our priorities."

Biden's comments are below...