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VP Biden Kicks off Middle Class Task Force with Focus on Green Jobs
February 27, 2009 5:46 PM
ABC News' Karen Travers reports: Vice President Biden kicked off the Obama Administration’s Middle Class Task Force with a panel discussion on environmentally friendly (“green”) jobs at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia today.
So what are green jobs? Biden defined them as, “jobs associated with environmental improvement and improving the lives of the American people.”
“Scientists working on an advanced, renewable alternative to CO2-producing fossil fuels is engaged in a green job, as is a laborer winterizing or weatherizing a home, or a lineman or a linewoman building out the smart grid -- they're all green jobs,” the vice president said.
The Obama Administration formed this task force in order to identify and focus on economic policies to benefit the middle class, bringing together the administration's economic advisers and Cabinet members to work on three key areas: job creation, job training and work-life balance.
Biden said today that in this economic crisis, the middle class is suffering.
“They weren't very much in on the upside; they're in on the downside,” he said.
He highlighted key critical ways that investing in green jobs can help the middle class: more jobs and better paying jobs to keep up with 21st century needs; lower energy costs and a cleaner environment.
The task force meeting consisted of a panel of experts in this field, focusing on how the economic recovery plan can create environmentally friendly jobs and provide workers with training. Biden was joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), Sens. Arlen Specter (R) and Bob Casey (D) and Democratic Reps. Chaka Fattah and Robert Brady.
To tee up the event, the Vice President penned an op-ed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer and touted the $20 billion in the stimulus plan that was put aside for a green economy, including $500 million for job training.
"We're starting to make the investments needed to leave a cleaner world to our children while also creating good jobs right now. When you're creating green jobs, you're doing well by doing good," Biden wrote.
At the panel event, Biden highlighted several areas that will see greater funding because of the stimulus plan including investment in wind and solar energy, modernization of the electrical grid, and more energy efficient housing.
When announcing on January 30 that Biden will head up the new task force on the middle class, President Obama cited Biden's upbringing and work ethic as supporting evidence for his first big assignment.
"There is no one who brings to bear the same combination of personal experience and substantive expertise. Joe's come a long way and has achieved a great deal, but he's never forgotten his roots as a working-class kid from Scranton, Pa.," Obama said last month at the White House. "He's lived the American dream, and lived and worked to make that dream a reality for others."
"With this task force, we have a single, highly visible group with one single goal: to raise the living standards of the people who are the backbone in this country -- the middle class," Biden said that day.
"Because when they, in fact, their standard is raised, the poor do better. ... And by the way, the wealthy do better as well. Everyone does better."
- Karen Travers
February 27, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (41)
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I am not sure why we see more of these reports here from the ABC news team, maybe to help drive traffic to their site or something, but a note to Mr. Tapper and ABC: I come here for Jake Tapper's more idiosyncratic reporting and commentary. I scroll right past the content that's been vetted for TV.
Posted by: annie | Mar 2, 2009 1:40:49 PM
What is the difference between
VP Joe Biden and the late comedian
Curley Howard of the Three Stooges?
Curley Howard was acting! LOL.
Posted by: reaganfan | Mar 1, 2009 10:54:11 PM
I, for one am happy with our President and Vice President. Everyone really needs to stop comparing them to others especially Palin. Now she is one to criticize. She is so empty headed and it was evident durig the elections and now in her state. I don't see her getting elected for anything except maybe changing the role of toilet paper for $5.00 per hour at Mcdonalds.
Posted by: Native American | Mar 1, 2009 8:12:20 AM
If Biden were a Republican and did not sitteth at the right hand of God, he would be prime real estate, comedy gold if you will, for the entertainment industry.
Posted by: RR GOP | Mar 1, 2009 1:22:21 AM
Ayn Rand also wrote "The Virtue of Selfishness".
Yes! I highly recommend it. In it she explains that the altruist who sacrifices himself to others, and the brute who sacrifices others to himself, are just two sides of the same bad coin. The moral code of self-sacrifice requires both giver and taker, victim and victimizer. It is an inversion of morality.
True morality requires independence, productivity, and, most of all, rationality. The moral man does not sacrifice his happiness for others, nor does he sacrifices others for his gain. He stands on his own two feet, and trades value for value.
This scrupulousness is actually the precondition for a benevolent society. In the US today, we are all being looted for the sake of the "common good" and all it has created is a common feeling of ill will. It's hard to love your fellow man when he has his hand in your pocket, and we all have our hands in each others' pockets in one way or another.
Posted by: Ardsgaine | Mar 1, 2009 12:32:59 AM
I meant to write dividing.
Posted by: reaganfan | Feb 28, 2009 11:01:19 PM
Donna Hughes:
Biden's idea of diving Iraq into three
ethnic groups was and is STUPID!
If we had done what "Dopey Joe"
had suggested the Iranians would be
in control of Iraq and be far more
dangerous than they already are!
Stop drinking the "kool aid" and
open your eyes!
Posted by: reaganfan | Feb 28, 2009 11:00:27 PM
I suggest that we name the Republican Party the Hypocritic Party. It seems to be a common thread with every single one of them including many posters here. They choose party over people every single time, spout the same garbage they have for the last eight years that drove this country into the ground, and since WHEN did the Republicans become the party of conservative spending? Where have some of you people been living the last eight years - on some alternative planet? Bush had a huge surplus in the budget when he was elected and now we are trillions of dollars in debt under his "leadership" - or maybe it was Cheney's "leadership" - one never knows.
Posted by: sandy | Feb 28, 2009 10:01:52 PM
Harry Reid finds Americans visiting Washington, DC to be stinky and unkempt. Imagine how he will find them when their bathing and toilet flushing is reduced. I'll not mention the recommendation for limited toilet tissue usage.
Posted by: mad | Feb 28, 2009 4:13:43 PM
Green jobs, as I see it, substitute human labor for other forms of energy. This means, for example, that instead of using electricity to pump water from a well, you lower a bucket and pull the water up yourself. This is how we can transform the USA into a third world country.
Posted by: Jack | Feb 28, 2009 2:57:36 PM
And you find virtue in giving your hard earned dollars to irresponsible people or the government which can't do anything right?
*********************************************
Not with the Bush administration, which I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to far longer than the first month of their administration.
Posted by: kat the real one | Feb 28, 2009 12:12:34 PM
Ayn Rand also wrote "The Virtue of Selfishness".
Posted by: Donna Hughes | Feb 27, 2009 10:01:39 PM
*********
And you find virtue in giving your hard earned dollars to irresponsible people or the government which can't do anything right?
Posted by: Peach | Feb 28, 2009 9:45:41 AM
Sarah Palin would have done a better job in selling something as ridiculous and fluffy as this...I just wonder how badly the GaffeMaster will blow it!!
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | Feb 28, 2009 7:52:10 AM
Biden is the worse VP in this history.
Posted by: anonymous | Feb 28, 2009 6:07:09 AM
When asked what was in the porkulus bill for small businesses,Joe said call me if the bridge over the creek is out and people can't get to your business.The government will come and fix the bridge.I am not making this up.He really said that. He also told a guy in a wheel chair to stand up at campaign rally.This guy is a Moron.
Posted by: Ronaldus | Feb 27, 2009 10:21:55 PM
Oh Joe is just a lovable goof. At least he is not roasting children over an open fire at the Naval Observatory while sneakily spying on everyone. I'll take the lulz over the evil hideousness any day.
Posted by: Jenny M | Feb 27, 2009 10:19:56 PM
"Dow hits bottom. Outlook sunny!"
Right. I suggest you put your life savings in the Dow companies tomorrow; you'll be on Easy Street.
Say what you will about the knowledgeable Donna Hughes, she is downright certain that American fighting men and women in Iraq didn't accomplish anything at all. No, it was the prospect of a potential Messiah that turned it all around...
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | Feb 27, 2009 10:14:12 PM
Ayn Rand also wrote "The Virtue of Selfishness".
Posted by: Donna Hughes | Feb 27, 2009 10:01:39 PM
Now wonder so many people are reading Atlas Shrugged.
I don't know how Ayn Rand knew in the 1950's what our country would turn into, but she did.
Anyone who wants a read on how the government is going to continue to punish excellent and success and what it will do to the country and our spirit, just read that book.
Posted by: Peach | Feb 27, 2009 9:54:51 PM
Joe's idea was to have three states, each with it's group - Kurd, Sunni, or Shiite. Each would be responsible for it's own local government and all would be under a federal government that dealt with national issues.
Since there was a lot of ethnic cleansing going on and people had already pretty much segregated themselves into those three original groups, it seemed like a pretty good idea at a time when there weren't any other ideas except to keep slogging along and hope for the best.
After all we broke it and we unleashed all of those forces, courtesy of the four horsemen of the apocalypse: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
Posted by: Donna Hughes | Feb 27, 2009 9:28:13 PM
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