Vice President Biden speaks at the change of command ceremony in Baghdad today. (Photo Credit: AP / Jim Watson Pool)
by Mike Memoli
In his Oval Office address last night, President Obama pivoted from remarks on the war in Iraq to the economy, saying that because of our involvement abroad "we've not done what's necessary to shore up the foundations of our own prosperity."
"And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy, and grit, and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad," he said.
In a series of interviews this morning, Vice President Biden echoed the president's message, arguing in one that America's ability to maintain its national security "is in fact dependent upon the economy."
"Just as we turned the page and are cooperating as Democrats and Republicans on the issue of Iraq, we should be doing the same thing on the economy," he said on CBS' "The Early Show."
Asked what the administration could do further to help the economy, Biden said it would be "a continuation of what we're doing now."
"Which is to stimulate the economy by continuing to focus on infrastructure, by giving taxes and more tax breaks to small businesses," he explained. "And I hope the Republicans when we get back will in fact lift their hold on us being able to vote on a tax cut for small businesses that is tied up in the Senate."
That echoes Obama's own call on Monday for the GOP to end its "blockade" in the Senate on small business tax cuts.
Speaking on the "Today" show on NBC, Biden also commented on Republican calls for Obama to acknowledge former President Bush's role in pursuing the surge strategy that they argue made yesterday's announcement possible.
"The question about whether or not credit is deserved, who deserves the credit for this beginning of a fundamental transition, I don't think is worth arguing about," Biden responded. "There's no doubt that the president and I both disagreed with the way in which the war was begun, how it was conducted, et cetera. But the truth of the matter is, that -- that by the end of the last administration the transition was in place, there was a political movement that was afoot. We kept on Secretary Gates, our present -- we kept on General Petraeus. We kept on a continuity here to finish the job. And that's what we're in the process of doing."
Biden later spoke at the ceremony in Baghdad marking the formal transition to Iraqi security forces.
"We have kept a promise, a promise made to the American people and to the people of Iraq by drawing down our forces to roughly 50,000," he said. "We are on track [to remove] all of our troops by the end of next year according to the agreement signed by President Bush made with the Iraqi government. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over."
Comments
Two items on the economy from today's headlines:
1. Government Motors (GM) reported Wednesday a nearly 25 percent slump in US sales in August compared to the same month a year earlier.
2. The census bureau reports that Federal government spending rose 16% in 2009, the largest increase ever recorded.
How's that "Recovery summer" working out?
Posted by: Equal time, injecting facts | September 1, 2010 12:25 PM
GOP Theft by Deception Axis of Evil Post Bush/Cheney Doers Speak! Let's have hearings! Let's have a new Commission! Let's find out who lied, and why 4400 men, women, children, sisters, brothers, and their neighbors all died! We lied! Who lied! Let's have a Truth Commission! Just not about us! Just Obama! Just Pelosi! Just Reid! No Jobs bill for you! Just say he's failing! Get the Wagons! No jobs bill for America! It was always about "civil rights." It was always about "Privatizing Social Security" and then collapse! No Truth Commission! Just us! Just theft! Just TEAM GOP Deception! Just Beck! No "Fairness Doctrine." No Immigration Reform! Just Detainment! Just Rendention! Just TEAM GOP Economic Southern Border Beat Dollars! Just say he's failing! Just don't lend! No jobs bill for you! No new "Markets" for you! Just us! Give us the House! Or we will huff and puff until all "constitutional" laws come down! Give us the Senate or we will huff and puff until all the Economic American Value comes down! We did it then! We will do it again! Give us our "Z" people! Give us our Privatized Two for One Immigrant Super Tuesday Nov 2nd and it will be all good!
Posted by: Roger Morris | September 1, 2010 1:03 PM
What does V.P. bite-me know about national security....Nothing!
He was against the surge and he wanted to divide Iraq up into three different countries.
Bite-me has the typical left wing ideology that's dangerous to this country.
Paulo
Typical
Posted by: Paulo | September 1, 2010 2:11 PM
More "unexpected" bad economic news, from today's headlines:
"NEW YORK (Reuters) – ...the drop in employment and a slump in construction spending to a 10-year low in July kept concerns about slow economic growth alive.
...In a separate report, the private sector unexpectedly cut 10,000 jobs in August compared to a gain of 37,000 in July, ADP Employer Services said."
How's that "Recovery Summer" working out, guys?
Posted by: Equal time, injecting facts | September 1, 2010 3:23 PM
That's not a flattering picture of Joe. He's starting to look as old as McCain.
Posted by: conservativemaster | September 1, 2010 3:24 PM
We have protected our National Interests by preventing another major terrorist attack. We have killed thousand of bad guys formerly known as terrorists, now known as "potential man made disasters."
You have another major strike in the US and the economy will really be bad for years.
We have to go after terrorists BEFORE they have the opportunity to strike here. We cannot sit back and depend on $10 an hour TSA employees to defend us. We have seen how well that works.
Then there is the problem of a massive border with Mexico that has tunnels big enough to drive vehicles through, unsecure, crossed every year by hundreds of thousands of illegals and who knows who else.
One more thing: Can we get someone on the Dems side to show some class and say "we won due to the surge as proposed by President Bush."
Or, would that be like driving a stake into the heart of those foaming at the mouth liberals?
Posted by: Free to Watch the Liberal's Summer Meltdown | September 1, 2010 3:58 PM
Why would people actually worry about a job when they're getting 99 weeks of unemployment?
Posted by: vla | September 1, 2010 5:38 PM
I think the answer is another WPA. Our nation's infrastructure is crumbling, killing us, from Minnesota to Louisiana and we must to something about it. At the same time, the Corporations refuse to provide jobs for American workers, sending them overseas, even though they were happy to take our tax dollars. Let's get this nation working again. Take a lesson from a great American, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the success of his WPA. It was so successful that he was re-elected three time. Can you satisfy the electorate any better than that!!?
President Obama has already contributed mightily with his Affordable Healthcare Act and we can access the website at: http://www.healthcare.gov/
That Act alone, will save and create jobs, save taxpayer dollars, by prosecuting fraud, theft and abuse in our Social Security Programs, our Medicare Programs and our Medicaid Programs. Keep in mind, though, left in the hands of the Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers and our safety nets will be swallowed up, by Wall Street. You know that Street, The Black Hole of Taxpayer's Dollars. That is where our safety-net social programs will end up, if the Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers buy their way back into control of our government, down the black hole of Wall Street.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | September 1, 2010 7:36 PM
Joe's correct - there s/b cooperation between democrats and republicans on the economy. Now that we have proven whcih parties solutions work, the dems should come on board and extend the Bush tax cuts. Can the deficits get any worse?
As for the tie between the economy and National Security.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/545651/201008311913/Cant-Blame-War-For-Spike-In-Deficit.htm
Just where did Joe Biden stand on WMDs in Iraq:
"If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late."
--Sen. Joseph Biden, Sept. 4, 2002
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-arlington/the-iraq-war-and-myth-making
Posted by: Terry | September 1, 2010 7:54 PM
It is those very tax cuts for the rich that have sunk our economy. We have to get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthy. They didn't ask for them. They don't need them, but America needs their tax revenues in our Treasury, the 800 Billion Dollars that is not being collected from the millionaires and the billionaires. Who makes up that gap in our revenues, the working class, who can't afford the accountants and the lawyers, to wiggle their way out of paying taxes, too!! To the wealthy, I would say. if you want a vibrant, productive, and satisfied work force, than it is imperative that American workers get the respect they deserve, the pay they deserve and the jobs they deserve. Otherwise, America will become one, big, very unhappy place in which to live. Already, with the political scene, we see, what was once, a vibrant active electorate being whipped into a frenzy by millionaires and billionaires, trying to create confusion and fear, among our most vulnerable voters. Hiring ex-elected officials to be a party to heavy-handed strategies that sow the seeds of doubt and fear into the heart of America. That isn't Americanism, that's fascism.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | September 4, 2010 6:15 AM
PFUTZ,
Quit practicing economics since you know nothing about the subject.
According to you the tax cuts of 2001 & 03 put the country into a recession in 2008.
Your opinion is that the rich are rich enough, so its time to take their money for the use of the greater good. Ask yourself what the next logical event that the rich will do. Will the rich be incentivized to continue to make all that money if they will just have it confiscated from them? Do you think the rich might take their business to another country?
I do agree with you that there are too many ways to wiggle thru the tax code - ironically, you man BO is proposing more of those loopholes. Solution - get rid of the loopholes and lower the rates.
Facism is whenhe large hand of gov't commands the individual to do as the gov't pleases. Sounds more like democrat solutions to me.
Posted by: Terry | September 6, 2010 5:00 PM