Biden: 'Washington Right Now Is broken'

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says "Washington right now is broken" and the country is in "deep trouble" unless it attacks ballooning federal deficits.

Asked about the political climate across the country, Biden said in a nationally broadcast interview that "we understand why they're angry. ... We get it."

Speaking of intense partisanship in the capital, Biden said on CBS's "The Early Show" that "I've never seen it this dysfunctional." He said the message coming from the stunning Republican upset in the recent Massachusetts election was, 'Hey guys, get your act together. Get something going.' "

Comments

[pointyheadprodigy]

05:34 PM on 02/18/2010

Broken? Huh, maybe they are starting to pay attention. I'll take that as good news. Perhaps they'll go as far as listening to the non-corporate citizens and acting in our behalf.

[MBWinters]

10:17 AM on 02/18/2010

Greetings Citizens......

The Class Clown Needs To Just Say No to Spending...

We should bring back the slogan Just Say No for Joe "The Class Clown Biden" If you want to attack the federal deficit just say no to increased federal spending. The first place to start is to eliminate the federal tax credit for single head of household people who recieve checks for as much as $ 12,000 for making less than $ 30,000....then we should look at othe rpet projects and grants that doo not fit the description of the federal governments role....to provide for the general welfare and defense....nothing more or nothing less....

Warm regards,

Michael Winters

[eahce]

10:02 AM on 02/18/2010

Under who's leadership?

[askmeificare]

01:27 AM on 02/18/2010

How about stop trying to spend our way out of debt

[mostly amused]

09:59 PM on 02/17/2010

The media overstates the lack of bipartisanship. Both parties supported war in Iraq and both support escalation in Afghanistan.

Our "war policy" is the worst thing about being a citizen and paying takes. And both parties are totally into it.

[SGrundy]

09:06 PM on 02/17/2010

Boondoggle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ_klXDGeQk

[LemonMeringue]

08:57 PM on 02/17/2010

D.C. is broken because lobbyists control Congress. Period.

[peter777]

08:12 PM on 02/17/2010

V.P. Biden could help fix it by helping get rid of the filibuster rule as presently existent in the Senate. He has authority to rule on a motion to change the rule. The rule can be change, according to precedent, by a simple majority of the Senate. The single institution most responsible for the Washington gridlock is the U.S Senate, and primarily the gridlock is caused by a super majority being required to get anything done. Eliminate the filibuster, Joe!

[AlwaysCivil]

07:30 PM on 02/17/2010

How different would life in the US be if we had an across-the-board 25% cut in spending?

[askmeificare]

01:28 AM on 02/18/2010

hear hear! stop the spending

[Cimms]

07:19 PM on 02/17/2010

Then FIX IT.

[markdolph]

08:33 PM on 02/17/2010

Ditto.

[yourmomscalling]

07:00 PM on 02/17/2010

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MR WIZARDS WHO SAID THE ECONOMY IS FUNDAMENTALLY STRONG ????

[Cambridge9]

07:18 PM on 02/17/2010

Actually is was YOUR Mr. Wizard who claimed that "the economy is fundamentally strong". That was on September 15 of 2008 - the day Bear Sterns collapsed. And it was a quote by John McCain at a rally while trying to win the White House. He failed - get over it!

And please, STOP SHOUTING!!

[LemonMeringue]

08:58 PM on 02/17/2010

They got voted out in 2008.

[GoldsteinD]

06:30 PM on 02/17/2010

no kidding. liberal Dems are in power

[Sam1969]

07:25 PM on 02/17/2010

So he says we are in deep trouble unless we attack the ballooning federal deficit. He needs to tell that to that clown Obama as well.

[ztck5356]

08:26 PM on 02/17/2010

Once upon a time there was a president and GOP who spent an entire government into economical disaster and almost bankrupted the country. Then the president and his party got thrown out at the next election and they all proceeded to sit back and blame the mess on the NEW president and his party.

How stoopid do you think people are here?

[Raster]

06:03 PM on 02/17/2010

Since Obama is famous for starting out negotiations by a priori pulling items off the negotiating table (single-payer health insurance), can we assume that the $1 TRILLION/YEAR combined war-attack budget and the continuing bailout budgets are OFF THE TABLE and will not be controled and will give the Generals-Admirals what they want, when they want it?

On the contrary Mr. Vice President, I don't think you "get it" at all.

[ztck5356]

08:28 PM on 02/17/2010

Right. Let's get rid of those Dems and put GW and Chainey back in and all the "SEE" street boys and let them continue bankrupting the government. After all,they did so good with their "conservative" 8 years didn't they? Maybe they could start another fake war while they are at it and speed up the whole bankrupting thing.

HIlarious!!!

[MyNameIsJames]

05:47 PM on 02/17/2010

One thing is for sure -

There is BIPARTISAN AGREEMENT on supporting the status quo in Washington and Wall Street.

Both the Democratic and Republican Party have evolved over the past 20 years into political parties that value big money and incumbency more than they do solving the problems that the USA confronts

One other observation is that this phenomenon is also GENERATIONAL - Baby Boomers as a group have displayed behavior that really has degraded the idealism of the American political system.

Their motto, "What's in it for me?"

[manicore]

05:04 PM on 02/17/2010

Thanks Joe for stating the Obvious! and for reminding us that this Administration is very Good at
identifying problems when it comes to actually Fixing things like Healthcare they are pathetic.

[ztck5356]

08:30 PM on 02/17/2010

Like the Repubs tried to do anything with health care? What have they contributed to this problem?

OH, I forgot, they have contributed .....nothing! They had it for 8 years, what exactly did they do for health care reform? Didn't even bring it up did they?