This key statement by Biden puts to lie the criticisms by Sestak (and others) that Specter is a political opportunist, without courage or conviction.
Sestak cannot point to a similar “vote of courage” on his part. (Though his funding votes for Iraq and Cheney should have ended his Dem career.)

“The fact of the matter is we would not be about to even begin the kind of recovery that we are about [to begin], that we want, were it not for the fact that Arlen Specter put his career on the line,” Biden said.

Ditto GO ARLEN!!!!!!!!!

Specter’s no hero. He was part of the group who arbitrarily forced the bill down to $787 billion, even though most economists said $1.2 billion was what the economy needed. Now we’re heading into a jobless recovery because a handful of chuckleheads decided that a nice round politically-safe number was more important than a good policy outcome. The stimulus stunt was precisely an example of the sort of water-down Democrats who Specter will join in kneecapping Obama’s agenda if he’s reelected.

Holy Cow! What a joke we are about 8 mos. into that
bill that has barely trickled into our economy, to date they have documented about 30,000, jobs mostly in states with lower unemployment rates than others the rest of the money will not be disbursed until late next year, before the election. This bill was rammed through in such a hurry that no one had the time to read it, and some how you think this was not
enough and sound policy! Biden, what a loser, has he no shame. You folks can have Specter! 2010 should be quite an awkening for you!

Jon-
We haven’t even spent half the stimulus bill. It’s a two-year plan.
BTW, I think you meant 1.2 TRILLION not billion. However, the bill simply wasn’t going to pass at that number.

Jon, you seem to be dancing around a point Sestak was trying to make when he shot himself in the foot:
Toomey’s got a link to Sestak interview where Sestak STUPIDLY says the bill should have had an extra $150 billion. BECAUSE… we’d have hundreds of thousands less unemployed.

If that’s all the employment bump Sestak thinks would have occurred, then he’s an idiot. If you “stimulated” with $150 billion and helped one million people, that $150,000 per person (which is too expensive).
No, $150 billion should be enough to help SEVERAL MILLION of people. If it would only have helped hundreds of thousands, it wouldn’t have been worth it.
Just one more example of Sestak not knowing squat about the numbers he rattles off.

Karen-
The bleed rate has slowed down tremendously and many sectors have stabilized and some have started to grow. If the stimulus bill had not occurred there would have been more layoffs and collapses of industries around the country. Unemployment would be close to 15% instead of projected to tap 10% at the peak before reversing course.
Specter 2010 will crush Toomey 2010.

Karen-
BTW, the 30,000 are for Federal Contracts Only.

The number of job losses each month has dropped significantly. If we count those as “jobs that would ptherwise have been lost without the stimulus plan”, then there are millions of jobs saved.

The jobs numbers should start being in positive territory in the next month or two.

Obama needs Arlen to do his bidding. PA needs someone to stand up to the corporate elitists in the White House that give hundreds of billions of our dollars to unions, car companies, and banks while giving nothing back to the people. Screw Arlen. He’s dead to me. Sestak doesn’t have a chance.

The Republicans will sweep in 2010, because of the out-of-control spending, unemployment, taxation from the bad policies of healthcare reform and cap & trade. American do not want every aspect of their lives controlled by politicians. Arlen is out, because he has forgotten that he works for the people, not the other way around. Kitchen Table Issues will get you elected.