Obama Responds To Biden On Economy: "We Had Incomplete Information" (VIDEO)

In a pair of separate interviews, President Obama defended his administration's response to the economic crisis in the wake of Vice President Joe Biden's remark Sunday that "we misread how bad the economy was."

"I would actually -- rather than say misread, we had incomplete information," President Obama told NBC News' Chuck Todd. "What we always knew was that a) this recession was gonna be deep, and b) it was gonna last for a while."

Watch [at the 2:00 minute mark]:

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"There's nothing that we would have done differently," Obama added in an interview with ABC News. "We needed a stimulus and we needed a substantial stimulus."

In response to critics -- including retired Gen. Colin Powel and Warren Buffet -- who have publicly worried about the deficit, Obama said there were "legitimate concerns. In the midterm and long term we're going to have to get control of that."

"The question that some have argued is, 'Okay, what next?' Maybe you stop the freefall but you still have close to 10% unemployment,'" the president said. "And you know, this is something that we wrestle with constantly ... [W]e inherited a big deficit, and it is at a certain point potentially counterproductive if we're spending more money than we're having to borrow."

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Comments

[Educated American]

09:40 PM on 07/13/2009

The Problem is the Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal and has no reserves.
It is a private bank, privately owned with a license to do whatever it pleases and there is a long history of their manipulation of the U.S. economy.

Don't take my word for it. If you really want to know. Research it. The answers are out there, but you won't hear about it on any Cable "News" Network.
Research.
Learn.
It's not that difficult.

Look for the movie "The Money Masters" for an indepth history of the Federal Reserve and banking practices pre-dating the establishment of the United States.

[PINO]

03:09 PM on 07/08/2009

"I would actually -- rather than say misread, we had incomplete information,"

What a Bold Face LIE.

This man is so irresponsible; He make Joe Biden look intelligent.

[kesmarn]

03:40 PM on 07/08/2009

The info was incomplete. Because the Bush people's accounting techniques used gimmicks that made the deficit projections look rosier than they actually were. When those techniques were thrown out, the real numbers showed the deficit to be $2.7 trillion higher than anticipated.

See NYT, 2/19/2009 Read the article.

[Catch22isms]

02:41 PM on 07/08/2009

My first thought upon seeing this headline - 'faulty intelligence'. So are the media going to slaughter this administration the way they did the last one? It's silly to even ask that question.

[Star2000dancer]

02:40 PM on 07/08/2009

He's not doing what he promised. I think he thought he could. I don't think it's him stopping him from keeping his word, I think it's all the outside influences. Our dream was to have the same love, garden & family he has. He is the American Dream & represents everything we thought we had or could have. It's not a big dream, it's the same dream our fore fathers had for us..

[Mike Barden]

02:09 PM on 07/08/2009

TA DA Everyone, take a bow.

[Star2000dancer]

01:54 PM on 07/08/2009

I must say I thought the 1st thing he would do was give all Americans the same healthcare he gets. That was the most important. Not AIG , Wall Street or the FED.

[Sean I]

01:49 PM on 07/08/2009

the economy won't turn around overnight, but the bleeding has slowed. anyone who believes it will in an instantaneous turn is ignorant with regard to American financial history.

[Star2000dancer]

02:35 PM on 07/08/2009

Yes research American History. But also research the other countries this has happened to, why it happened, & how they fixed it. It's not only America.

[Mike Barden]

01:46 PM on 07/08/2009

Is that 'cause we hada incomplete President?

[kepary]

02:23 PM on 07/08/2009

no, we have an INCOMPETENT president

[GoldsteinD]

01:30 PM on 07/08/2009

kinda reminds you of when Bush used his excuses of bad intell when he had to backtrack on the WMD situation in Iraq. Obama : just another great politician and poor leader

when will you "True Believers" admit to being taken?

[Mike Barden]

01:49 PM on 07/08/2009

when we are.

[toocoldout]

12:31 PM on 07/08/2009

I love the president, but I'm not convinced he's intelligent.

[Star2000dancer]

01:25 PM on 07/08/2009

I understand why people who never had to actually pay the bills on the system don't understand how bad it is. I had the same attitude. My Mom got stuck on the system with 5 kids after she left my dad for a loser. Then she got sick & I had to take over sending 5 children to school & paying the bills with $496.00/mo. Without a car, phone or even a tv. Every time I got them on their feet, by the time I came back they barely had a light bulb left.
There's no extra money to buy anything, even pay Insurance. Even when I'd get her a washer & dryer they couldn't even afford the soap to wash clothes. If you're on the system alone, with no one to help you, you may survive, but there's no way to "cut back". And she was on Disability. You can only get disability if you've worked at least 10 years & paid into the system.
These are the people who have lost their jobs, home, & alot of them their lives. Once you're injured you lose everything you own until you're completely on the system. They were promised $500, they got $250. They need at least $1000 to even give them a month to actually be able to even breathe.

[Mike Barden]

01:51 PM on 07/08/2009

but he's funny. Bush was just goofy.

[joster]

12:21 PM on 07/08/2009

As the old car ad said: "You asked for it, you got it". e.g. You voted for it, you got it. Obama likes to say he "inherited" this mess, but in fact, he specifically campaigned on this mess and said he would fix it. He wanted this mess, so the "inherited" comment is pure bull.

[Mike Barden]

01:53 PM on 07/08/2009

Jr. didn't inherite a thing.

[Star2000dancer]

01:56 PM on 07/08/2009

GWBush? He inherited a surplus, his dad GHW had left Clinton a $5 trillion deficit.

[ChristianEcon.com]

04:26 PM on 07/08/2009

When did he say he "would fix it"?

[PINO]

04:42 PM on 07/08/2009

ChristianEcon wrote: When did he say he "would fix it"?

So he is not going to fix the economy, Right? Nor will he fix the auto industry, or fix the housing industry, or fix the health care industry.

So by not stating that he "would fix it" I can then surmise that he "will ruin it"

Right. Is this what you are saying?

[Donnat]

11:46 AM on 07/08/2009

Shame on you Obama. Using the old Bushism 'incomplete information' when you have failed to acknowledge what every credible economist has been saying about our economy.

It's not too late to get smart, ethical people around you to help you work on it. Don't become the black Bush. you'll end up being Jimmy Carter.

[kesmarn]

12:27 PM on 07/08/2009

The source of the incomplete info is related to the following, an excerpt from a NYT article from Feb.,2009:

WASHINGTON " For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear, according to administration officials.

[PINO]

04:48 PM on 07/08/2009

give it a rest, nobody's buying the blame bush crap anymore.

[Mike Barden]

01:56 PM on 07/08/2009

Sarah's gotta black bush?

[kassandrasduplex]

11:05 AM on 07/08/2009

Heard the latest? Obama has approved more set ulments in Arab lands. In other words the much advertised talk against set ulments was just that...talk.

[truelockCA]

10:24 AM on 07/08/2009

And the first "stimulus" didn't do anything.....so obviously we need more. G od help us!

[kassandrasduplex]

11:07 AM on 07/08/2009

I started wondering right after the election when president elect Obama started backtracking. Since then the fact he is a shill for the same forces behind his predecessor has become painfully obvious.

[edwcorey]

02:07 PM on 07/08/2009

He's backtracked like a defensive player covering Randy Moss. Trouble is, he's not defending too well against a vastly inferior team, which makes me feel he's throwing the game. After all, he did choose Geithner, Summers, Emanuel, Biden, Holder, McChrystal--and tried to choose Brennan (all the people who were wrong in judgment, ethics and action--over a slew of people who were right about everything. Not much of a change, believable or not. Which indicates that Rev. Wright was right about Obama being a politician. He's certainly no statesman at this point.

[lynettema]

12:16 PM on 07/08/2009

Most of the money- like 80% - has not been disbursed yet. Let's wait a while before we say this is over. Let's wait to see how this one plays out before adding yet another bailout amount as some are suggesting.

[truelockCA]

10:21 AM on 07/08/2009

Misread or incomplete information....asleep at the wheel. The retoric has changed since the campaign. What happened to all the the talk about change? People are starting to wonder about all the inflated promises made.....