Vice President Joe Biden said on a Monday conference call with
reporters that it was “above [his] pay grade” to explain in
detail the methodology the White House uses to estimate the
number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus
legislation, but stressed that there had been no “reasonable”
challenges to the estimates.
During the call, Biden said that the stimulus package, which was
signed into law in February, saved or created 150,000 in its
first 100 days, and he outlined White
House plans to accelerate the pace so that 600,000 more jobs will
be saved or created in the second 100 days this summer.
Asked by Jonathan Riskind of the Columbus Dispatch to
explain how the White House determined these numbers, Biden said
that the Council of Economic Advisers makes its estimates based
on measuring what the U.S. employment level would have been
without the stimulus, and then comparing it to the nation’s
actual employment level.
“I’m sorry I’m not an economist,” Biden said as he was describing
the methodology. “My background is foreign policy and the
constitution. “
The White House estimates also consider the number of jobs needed
to complete certain projects funded by the stimulus, and take
into account the “spinoff effects” of spending programs. For
instance, tax credits and subsidies for weatherization of homes
and wind farms boost contracts for businesses that may not be
receiving stimulus money directly, the vice president, who is
spearheading the implementation of the program, said.
“I’m a little above my pay grade here as I try to explain in more
detail how they count spinoff effects of actual jobs created, “
Biden said.
“It’s complicated,” he acknowledged. “But the fact is that there
has been no challenge to the methodology the Council of Economic
Advisers has come up with, known to national economists as being
reasonable to the estimates we have as to the actual jobs saved
or created.”
Later in the call, he said that while it was hard to take solace
in the fact that the unemployment rate has increased to 9.4
percent, Biden insisted it would have been worse without the
stimulus legislation.
“There’s no doubt that the unemployment rate would be
considerably higher than it is now," he said. "The estimates
range from we would have lost … one million to four million
additional jobs depending on whose model you look at, were it not
for the Recovery Act.”
