Vice President Joe Biden's claim that the administration underestimated the extent of the economic crisis it inherited has, as expected, opened the White House up to political attack.
On Monday, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, (R-Va.), took the first whack, accusing the president of crafting a stimulus plan that was poorly planned and implemented. In the process, he branched the criticism out well beyond economic policy, arguing that the White House has bitten off more than it could chew and was actually putting the nation's military at risk.
"Our military success relies upon our ability to provide our troops with what they need and it relies upon our economic strength to invest and continue to invest in the superior technology that has become the hallmark of the American military," said the Virginia Republican during a conference call with reporters. "And so it all comes back to how are we going to get the fiscal situation straight in Washington -- how do we go about reigniting the economic engine of small business that ought to be the priority? In my opinion, there's no question that this administration has tried to do way too much too soon and we ought to be much more thoughtful about the approach, and we ought to tackle the first priority right now which is to address the economy to help small businesses and working families."
Cantor was responding to a question about whether Biden's dual role as watchdog of the stimulus and overseer of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq presented too full a plate for the vice president to handle. The Congressman's remarks, tying the administration's economic record to its military performance, constituted the furthest-reaching criticism to be leveled at the White House since the recent round of poor job market news.
As for a potential solution, Cantor called on the president to work with him to re-direct portions of the stimulus rather than pass a second, supplementary package.
"What I would be in favor of ... and I will be requesting a meeting with the president to perhaps go about redirecting some of the money authorized in the first go-around, which hasn't worked," Cantor said. "And let's re-direct that to the place that we know can work, which is to help small businesses and working families. This was our plan initially. I believe that the American people don't want to see their taxpayer dollars being thrown good money after bad. "