Vice President Biden Responds to 19% Jump in Foreclosures by Serving Fish Sticks to Homeless

Published November 14, 2009 @ 07:25AM PT

$EH Biden\'s fish sticks$ The Detroit News reported Friday that house foreclosures are up 19% over the previous month, a gut kick aided in part by rising unemployment and an inadequate federal response to the continued crisis. If you're like me and tend to yawn a bit when you hear percentages, I strained a bit and did the numbers: this is now 8 consecutive months of 300,000 foreclosures per, so let's see now-- 8 times 300,000-ish is about, oh, nearly 2.5 million homes lost. There are now over 2 million people who watched representatives of government bailout bank take away their homes.

This wasn't supposed to happen. The day after President Obama signed into law the Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, he gave a speech at a high school in Arizona in which he outlined his ambitious plan that promised to significantly reduce foreclosures. His promise for this plan was that it would "give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy." What we now know is that the financial sector was cushioned from the worst of the crisis while everyday homeowners, soon to be over 3 million this year alone, continue to suffer.

If you're worried about all this, don't be. Vice President Biden has a solution: boutique catering. On the day these dismal foreclosure numbers were released, Biden took time from his hectic itinerary in order to "don gloves and an apron to serve fish sticks," writes the Huffington Post. We're saved! Biden apparently, "wanted to serve [delicious, crispy, hand-held fillets] to remind himself of the grim reality that many D.C. residents face." It apparently took the Vice President's posse approximately 5 minutes to weather the hairy commute back to the White House. Glad he made the effort.

Is it unfair to mock the Vice President for this empty grandstanding in a city of 18,000 homeless? After all, he's done his share of advocating for the poor, not least of which is his part in supporting the public option in health care reform. And yet. This was beyond stupid. If the Obama Administration made homelessness and the housing crisis a meaningful priority, the recent numbers are a good excuse to make a stand. Opportunity lost.

The upside? I hear the fish was delicious.

Image: AP

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Comments (8)

It was most likely poor grade fish at that.

Posted by James Brouillette on 11/14/2009 @ 11:45AM PT
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Hey, Biden is a man of the people. None of that elitist, organic Tilapia for him.

Posted by Noah Jennings on 11/14/2009 @ 12:03PM PT
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Yes, it is unfair to mock Biden for serving a meal to homeless people. After all, he didn't say, as you seem to imply, that what he did was all that needs to be done. What he did was to highlight a fine organization that needs support and the "grim reality" of homelessness in D.C. And then there's the implicit message to the rest of us, who could also find time in our busy schedules to do some volunteer work for organizations that need all the help they can get.

Posted by Kathryn Baer on 11/15/2009 @ 01:17PM PT
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The GRIM reality is that there have been BILLIONS spent, and THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH, spent properly to END HOMELESSNESS.

We need WELFARE AS WE KNEW IT, BACK. No more homeless children, veterans, men and women. Stop the "trickle down" economics of BAILING OUT BANKERS and start bailing out PEOPLE, it is the poorest of the poor, who take every CENT they get and put it BACK INTO THIS ECONOMY, they will not stash it away for retirement, buy a house in South America, put it into a foreign bank.

Shame on anyone for doing that sort of token crap, we are building a NINE MILLION DOLLAR FOOT BRIDGE IN MASSACHUSETTS, BUT THERE IS NO NEW FUNDS FOR THE HOMELESS? AND NOW THEY ARE CUT? WHERE ARE THE PRIORITIES WITH THIS NEW DEAL WE MADE?

I voted for Obama. I voted for Biden. AND I VOTED FOR CHANGE, Bush would go serve fishsticks to homeless folks, I expected so much better!

Posted by Cee Wolfe on 11/15/2009 @ 01:40PM PT
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Do we EVER learn that TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMIC POLICIES DO NOT WORK. The solution is NOT to give billions to BANKERS, give BILLIONS to the homeless, if you really want to repump the economy. Give those BILLIONS to the people who will actually CREATE NEW DEMANDS upon the economy for FOOD, HOUSING, AND SERVICES. Put 100.00 in ANY homeless person's hand, and will NOT end up in a foreign bank, will it? Hmmm, maybe we could start some sort of fishstick currency, we could call them Bidens from Heaven for the Poor and Homeless-- SHAME ON WASHINGTON, homeless people will be freezing soon. Remember the veteran who FROZE to death right across from the whitehouse? I do. What a travesty and I cannot believe that men of integrity CANNOT DO MORE to stop homelessness, than some token gesture, of this sort. Maybe they can build huts out of the fishsticks? Some working class hero you are Joe.

Posted by Cee Wolfe on 11/15/2009 @ 01:36PM PT
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In retrospect, Kathryn, I agree that it was a cheap swipe. Nonetheless, I still believe it to be justified within the context of an administration that passed up a once-a-century opportunity to reinvigorate a welfare and housing system that's cracked. Kudos for the Shaun Donovan pick etc, but even Bush pumped money into housing first programs.

Posted by Noah Jennings on 11/16/2009 @ 04:53PM PT
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Hey, Biden is a man of the people.

Yes, it is unfair to mock Biden for serving a meal to homeless people. After all, he didn't say, as you seem to imply, that what he did was all that needs to be done

what he did was all that needs to be done

What he said was what is going to happen. Nothing more will be done.

Posted by James Brouillette on 11/22/2009 @ 03:50PM PT
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Hey, Biden is a man of the people.

Yes, it is unfair to mock Biden for serving a meal to homeless people. After all, he didn't say, as you seem to imply, that what he did was all that needs to be done

what he did was all that needs to be done

What he said was what is going to happen. Nothing more will be done.

Posted by James Brouillette on 11/22/2009 @ 03:50PM PT
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Author

Noah Jennings is an outreach manager and advocate for the homeless in Colorado. A graduate of Naropa University, Noah has been involved in work with the homeless, those with chronic mental illness and related social justice issues for over ten years.