Biden Lays Out Plans for 'Recovery Summer'

The White House this week revealed plans to make the summer of 2010 "Recovery Summer" -- focusing on the economy and the job market in a period projected to have the highest levels of recovery act-sponsored activity to date. On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden noted, "We've gone from hemorrhaging over 700,000 jobs a month the first several months . . . to adding several hundred thousand jobs a month in the last several months." He cited 2.3 to 2.8 million jobs saved or created by last year's stimulus bill, and projected that the U.S. was on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010, announcing, "The fact is, the recovery act is working."

In explaining "Recovery Summer," Biden cited a dramatic increase in the number and scope of recovery act projects, ranging from roadwork to clean energy initiatives. As examples, he noted that 1,750 highway projects were underway in summer of 2009; this year would see 10,000 such projects. Last year, 100 clean-water and drinking-water projects were underway; this summer will see 3,000 similar projects.

The vice president went on to assert that the stimulus funding would create a positive ripple effect in the economy as a whole: "It means a lot more lunch breaks at the local diner . . . and a lot more trips to the barbershop, to the movies, to the department store -- helping those businesses . . . maintain their employment base and increase their employment base."

Biden deflected criticism for last month's numbers on jobs creation -- figures that were significantly enhanced by 2010 Census hiring but reflected poor overall private-sector job growth -- saying, "The vast majority of those 2.2 million to 2.8 million jobs have not been Census jobs," and reaffirmed his conviction that the private sector would make up the "vast bulk" of jobs stemming from the stimulus.

He accounted for the 9.7 percent unemployment rate -- higher than the 7.5 percent the White House had previously predicted -- asserting, "This recession was so much deeper, so much more profound than most people thought it [would be]. . . . We never thought that $787 billion was going to fill that hole. The purpose of it was to keep people from falling into the abyss . . . and begin to build a ladder to climb out of that hole."

The vice president was seemingly at ease with the public's perceived skepticism over the success of the recovery act, saying that most people don't "make a distinction between . . . bailing out the banks, TARP [and] a funding program called the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The measurement is: Is it feeling better? Am I more confident?. . . They do not associate that with -- nor would I expect to them to -- 'that was the Recovery Act [that] created those jobs.' "

On Friday, President Obama travels to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with workers and deliver remarks at what's billed as the 10,000th recovery act-sponsored road project. He is expected to discuss "Recovery Summer" and highlight the positive effects of the act on the job market to date.