Vice President Joe Biden tells groups of workers "we have come a long way" in a year

Mar 1, 2010 — The Orlando Sentinel

David Damron and Stephen Hudak

Mar. 1, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Vice President Joe Biden told frustrated national union leaders meeting in Orlando Monday afternoon that the economy was so bad when the Obama Administration took over, it would take more than a year to recover most of the millions of lost jobs and focus more sharply on key labor-agenda concerns.

Biden made slight mention of health care reform and only touched on other workers' issues that were on the minds of many at the AFL-CIO Winter Executive Council meeting. Instead, his 40-plus minute jobs-themed speech appeared to be tailored to soothe frustrated union leaders who are not only anxious about finding work for their unemployed members but are also upset that major labor issues are languishing.

"We had to get back to the basics," Biden said in defending bailouts of Wall Street banks and the auto industry. . Without those unpopular measures, Biden said, the country would have plunged into a depression.

"They're a necessary precondition," he said.

Biden then rattled off a checklist of investments from the $787-billion stimulus package, including $8 billion for high-speed rail, another $8 billion for broadband technology and funding for renewable energy and next-generation car batteries. In trademark Biden fashion, the vice president pointed to specific union leaders whose industry may benefit, regularly referring to them by first name.

"None of this stuff was happening before," Biden said.

"I know it doesn't sound like it, but we have come a long way in 12 months," Biden said at another point.

Before the speech, new paychecks were indeed what many union leaders said they wanted to hear about.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs," said newly-elected AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, when asked what Biden needed to talk about to address concerns of this traditionally Democratic-friendly audience. And in introducing the vice president, Trumka put aside any frustration and declared "the labor movement loves Joe biden."

In his speech, Biden made only brief mention of the Employee Free Choice Act, a proposed law that unions say would make it easier to organize, but business leaders deride as un-Democratic. The vice president also only made two brief mentions to the National Labor Relations Board, where union-friendly appointments were recently stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Earlier, Biden went to a job site in Clermont where the stimulus program is paying to widen busy U.S. Highway 27.

"Folks, it's real simple. We have to make this work; we have to make this work," he said. "Too many people are in trouble in this country."

Accompanied by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in Clermont, Biden said that while stimulus spending had gotten off to a slow start, the year-old program is now "breaking through." He said that every state had met a Tuesday deadline to "obligate" -- or being spending -- all of the $26.6 billion set aside in the stimulus bill to build roads and bridges. An estimated 7,800 of the 12,000 highway projects funded by the bill are already under way, he said.

"The truth of the matter is there is no economist now that says the Recovery Act hasn't created or saved at least 2 million jobs -- some say 2.5 million," the vice president said.

"Look folks, every dollar we invest in these infrastructure projects, highways and bridges, pumps a lot more money into the economy, saves and creates jobs beyond those that are right on that project," he said.

"It may mean one more waitress stays in business, one more sales clerk has a job," he said, talking to employees of Prince Contracting LLC, the project contractor. "You having a paycheck means you're employing other people."

He said Florida will receive $1.3 billion for 588 projects from the stimulus package.

"We're helping families everywhere get through today while we're paving the way, hopefully, for a better tomorrow," he said. "We're not out to just resurface a road here. If we have nothing else to show for it when we're done, we're making sure that when we do this work it's part of a larger plan, a plan that sparks widespread economic activity, a plan that creates jobs throughout communities, a plan that ensures that when we come out of this recession better prepared to lead in the 21st centrury than we did going in," he said.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0151-42466124