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'Long way' to US recovery: Biden
US Vice President Joseph Biden on Sunday defended a 787-billion-dollar stimulus package adopted to jump-start the troubled US economy, but admitted recovery was a long way off.
US Vice President Joseph Biden on Sunday defended a 787-billion-dollar stimulus package adopted to jump-start the troubled US economy, but admitted recovery was a long way off.
"We still have a long way to go, but clearly we are closer to recovery today than we were in January," Biden wrote in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. "The Recovery Act has been critical to that progress."
Passed by Congress earlier this year and signed by President Barack Obama into law, the package combines government-funded infrastructure projects with tax relief and assistance to those affected by the slump.
But it has been under fire from Republics who dubbed it inefficient and wasteful.
"But the way I see it, our balanced approach recognizes that there is no silver bullet, no single thing, that can address the many and complex needs of America's vast economy," Biden wrote.
"We need relief, recovery and reinvestment to cope with our multifaceted crisis -- and only 159 days after it was signed by President Obama, the Recovery Act is already at work providing all three."
