Biden: Time to Focus on the Economy

(CBS)  Vice President Joe Biden is in Baghdad meeting with Iraqi leaders and attending ceremonies marking the end of U.S. combat operations there. But - echoing President Barack Obama's address to the nation Tuesday night - Biden said Thursday that it's time to focus on restoring a healthy economy.

"The truth of the matter is, at the end of the date, our ability to maintain our national security is, in fact, dependent upon the economy," Biden told CBS' "The Early Show Wednesday. "And it's time to focus on that as well."

The vice president said that the best way to stimulate the economy is by giving tax breaks to small businesses and middle-class taxpayers, many of whom currently lack the disposable income to meet their daily needs. He criticized Senate Republicans for blocking those tax cuts and for focusing on electoral victories that he says will mean more of the same obstruction.

"The Early Show's" Erica Hill asked Biden whether the president's speech about transferring power in Iraq was an appropriate time to talk about the economy, rather than the sacrifices of those who have died in the U.S.'s seven-year war.

"Yes," Biden said. "He talked about change the mission. I'm about to go to a ceremony literally in the next hour where that is taking place. He did speak at length about the bravery and the sacrifice made by the men and women of this country," but Americans know that Democrats and Republicans now need to come together on the economy the way they have united on Iraq issues.

As for Iraq, Biden acknowledged the possibility of a continued power vacuum in the country, which has not been able to assemble a working government more than six months after national elections. But he said he's optimistic.

"I have been speaking with every one of the major leaders. I've met with every one of the groups that won portions of the vote in the election. And I'm absolutely convinced that they are nearing the ability of forming a government that will be a government representing the outcome of the election, which was very much divided," he said. "There's 325-plus members of their parliament. The largest party got 91 votes. So, it takes a while to put together this coalition. But I believe they're close to doing that."

Full Coverage of Iraq Transition:

U.S. Officially Marks Last Phase of Iraq War
Obama Hails End of Iraq Combat, Stresses Economy
Obama Calls Bush Fellow Patriot in Iraq Speech
Obama: Most Urgent Task to Restore the Economy
Obama's Iraq Speech: Full Text
Obama Calls Bush, Talks to Troops about Iraq
Biden: Time to Focus on the Economy
McCain: Iraq Milestone No Thanks to Obama
Real Risks for 50,000 U.S. Troops Still in Iraq
A Bittersweet Homecoming for Iraq Troops
Obama on Fallen Soldiers
'Transition in Afghanistan Will Begin'
Obama on Bush Conversation, Patriotism
American Challenges at Home

[RobAla]

Good grief! This administration should have been focusing on jobs over the past year and a half, instead of growing the federal government on the backs of businesses and taxpayers. Neither President Obama or VP Biden have a clue as how to grow jobs. We need a Congress that will keep these two in check, in order to grow jobs.

[stn_sage]

The time to focus on the economy...was from day number ONE...
not wait until well over a year and a half into your term!!!

And, I don't believe this is the case...it's just that those
things that have been done were so lame...they had little to no effect!

So, every couple of months it becomes time...once again...to 'focus' on the economy...as if it's the first attempt! Which, it isn't!

[JFK2112]

To be honest with you, he knows exactly what he is doing...He had to do Healthcare first because it was unpopular, expensive, etc. Knowing this he had to get it done before the midterm elections... Imagine if he worked on the economy first and then later on tried to do something with healthcare? When you have control of both houses, get whatever you can passed as soon as you can.

[RealWorldNow]

You got that right.

[RealWorldNow]

Hey Freddie, what are you smokin'? I guess you think they are right on time with their plan. Talk about clueless.

[tsigili]

After almost 2 yrs.....I should think so.

[Nikos_Retsos]

Sorry, Mr. Vice President: We cannot sweep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been draining $ trillions out of our U.S. Treasury for 9 years, while we still continue to pay our Sunnis allies in Iraq, and carry on a massive CIA bribes campaign in Afghanistan to fashion a face-saving way out. Obama promised to end George Bush wars and close those black holes that have drained our economy. We cannot sweep those facts under the rug, and say "let's focus on the economy." The economy will not recover when we throw $ trillions in unnecessary wars, and just pay lip service to our economic woes. We need economic growth here, and that is not going to happen as long as we continue to stuff our $ billions in the pockets of corrupt Afghan politicians, while we just extend unemployment benefits here.

Sure it was nice for Obama to gloss over a George Bush blunter with words of "American heroism and sacrifices at "a mission unaccomplished." How about bragging on "fulfilling his campaign promise to end the Iraq war that he reminded us he opposed?" Why did he leave out of his speech the fact that we turned Iraq into a mess 7.5 years ago; it is still a mess 7.5 years later; millions of Iraqi refugees still in Jordan, Syria and elsewhere are terrified to return, and the U.S. "mission in Iraq is considered accomplished" when we leave Iraq in a state of quasi-civil war? Why 2 milion Iraqi civilians and 4.500 American died for nothing? Plus,
35.000 U.S. servicemen maimed for life, while hundrends of others committed suicide. Doen anybody see any success on this evolving killing field?

Fact check: George Bush used the WMD pretext to depose Saddam Hussein and use Iraq as the first Domino in subverting the anti-Western regimes in Syria and Iran in succession. As soon as the U.S. invaded Iraq, it started building 40 massive military bases for the aforesaid purpose. But when Saddam Hussein's "Sunnis" turned Iraq into a Moon landscape with "car bombs craters," the U.S. put all the Sunnis in its payroll to pacify them, and started planning "a face-saving" way out. The U.S. knew that it couldn't trust the Sunnis who had lost their political power, nor the ****** whose paramount religious leader Moqtada El Sadr is virulently anti-American, and is hiding in Iran until the U.S. is fully out of Iraq.

Iraq as the first Domino to subvert anti-American regimes in Middle East has failed miserably. Obama dressed that failure as "a democratic success" of the U.S. effort in Iraq. He will need that phony argument next summer when he will have to dress Afghanistan in a democratic garb, and start withdrawing the U.S. troops from there too claiming "democratic success" for the Afghans as well. In 1974 Richard Nixon called the U.S. retreat from Vietnam ?Vietnamization.? Obama?s speech last night was about ?Iraqization.? And the ?Afghanization? escape scheme is on the making.

I received two e-mail reminders from the White House not to miss Obama's speech. I didn't. Did I buy the ?Iraqization" as a success? Of course not! Do I see the upcoming ?Afghanization" crafted with massive CIA bribes - as it was widely reported last week, as another success in the making? Of course not. Ernest Hemingway had this aphorism about wars: "In a modern war.... you will die like a dog for no good reason." Can, then, national speeches gloss over war failures? Of course not! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[SDRACBMS]

Wow, it's about time our government feels they should start working on the economy! Guess it didn't matter how many people lost their homes or became extremely buried in debt with no hope for a job anytime soon! Apparently it was not a priority to our government because let's face it, they have a job and have no worries about any of this trival stuff us 'americans/voters'have to worry about.

I doubt that either party is fully interested with the real issue around creating jobs, I don't care if they are Rep/Dem/Ind, just because they stand up and spit out a few words doesn't make them heros to fixing this situation. Until I hear ANY of our government representives start discussing their plan to bring back the jobs they SOLD to China and India I consider them all FULL OF #@#$!!

What they need to do is start heavily taxing the big corporations (especially the banks) for each job they have sent to China/India as well as the ones they fill here in the US by fyling them over on their H1/L1's. Until you hit these companies in the wallet big time they are going to continue along this path.

I work for a financial company and find myself a minority. In fact I don't even feel like I work in America anymore I feel like I'm in India! And I have yet to see anyone with a clue as to what they are doing so companies cannot use the excuse that they cannot find citizens that can fill these jobs. Some examples:

Basic MS apps they know nothing about, I have yet to receive an excel spreadsheet that is formatted properly or has accurate data, and I'm not even talking about complicated stuff like pivot tables or formulas! What I get is garbage and I have to waste time cleaning it up and re-adding numbers before I can distribute it out.

Everytime they get assigned a project they play dumb and create mutiple meetings and discussions as well as taking days and weeks wasting everyone's time before they actually start working on the project. In fact they are the masters of the stall tatic, which means once they start working they indicate they need more people added to the project in order to stick the implementation timelines.

If they have to multitask or work on two projects at once they start to complain they are too busy and DEMAND that you bring another person from their firm in to help them. In fact they are all given quotas and spend half their time thinking up ways on how to add new jobs that only 'their agency' can fill. My onsite coordinater had to take two meetings back to back once and immediately started crying about how we needed to fly another person in from his agency to be his 'assistant'. And the sad part about this is that they get what they ask for. How come these companies don't pull these unnecessary jobs out of their butts for americans????

Oh yeah and my favorite about the offshoring model in the financial world is that they don't have their backgrounds checked nor are they fingerprinted right away before they are given access to YOUR financial information. That's right they come right off the plan and are given full access. We have so many consultants running around the office with no employee id's because you can't get one by security until your fingerprints and background have cleared. Not only are they allowed to work but they are given full access to the client data as well as a secure id so they can log in from home. WHERE IS THE SEC AND OUR GOVERNMENT???????? This is a major identity breach and they turn a blind eye to it.....

[lobo62740]

I guess since the administration did not focus on the economy they might as well start now since it is in the tank. By focusing on the health plan, they took their eyes off the ball. Obama, his advisors and Congress worried NOT about the economy thinking it would miraculously rebound. It has not. It is very sad. We do not need rookies running this country!!!!!!!

[rainbowroosie]

These guys have NO CLUE!!!!

It's the ECONOMY stupid!!!!!!!!!!

[twinspineve]

dumb ass.

[guyfrompa46]

Sadly this is laughable. These clowns have no idea on how to fix the economy. They have spent more money than we have and it has made things worse. What exactly is thier plan? Ask that, they will have no answer just like obama id din response to the questions he was asked during his campaign. I promise this I promise that but I can't tell you how I will accomolish any of it. This is pathetic.

[RealWorldNow]

Their plan is to spend your money in large quantity on programs and "investments" where there is little transparency and no accountability. When they a done with that, they will start spending your children's money, there will be no end until we get representatives with a back bone and a calculator!