Biden acknowledged administration officials were too optimistic earlier this year when they predicted the unemployment rate would peak at 8 percent as part of their effort to sell the stimulus package. The national unemployment rate has ballooned to 9.5 percent in June — the worst in 26 years.
"The truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited,"
The problem is that doesn't square at all with the rhetoric of President Obama, back on February 9:
My administration inherited a deficit of over $1 trillion, but because we also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression, doing little or nothing at all will result in ever — even greater deficits, even greater job loss, even greater loss of income and even greater loss of confidence.
Those are deficits that could turn a crisis into a catastrophe, and I refuse to let that happen.
Beyond that, note the irony of Biden admitting he, Obama and the administration "misread the economy" when he ran against John McCain, insisting his rival was "profoundly out of touch" with economic reality:
