Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Justine Rellosa-Talk Radio News Service

Vice President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the economy is, in fact, "on the mend" and added that job creation is still at the forefront of change.

According to government figures, the Recovery Act has created 2.5 million jobs so far and it increased the current GDP by as much as three percent last quarter. Biden said that nearly $100 billion of the Recovery Act tax cuts are pulling "double-duty" shifts by helping families gain efficient income through multiplier effects and boosting economic activity.

"The economy is clearly on a mend. In the first quarter of this year we added 54,000 jobs per month. Now, I know, and we all know, that that rate of job growth is too slow to bring down the unemployment rate," Biden said. "Continued weakness in job creation remains a major challenge, one the President and the whole administration is committed to meeting."

The Vice President said that the plan for economic growth includes rules and regulations that protect consumers and tax payers, education reform, sustainable federal spending and energy independence.

"The next expansion is characterized by prosperity that is broadly shared by new economic opportunities for the middle class," Biden said. "By finally tearing down the barriers to health care and education [and] by starting us down a path toward energy independence, we’ll be building the America we need in order to compete... and lead in the 21st century."