White House defends stimulus model that proved overly optimistic, says jobs goal remains solid

White House defends optimistic stimulus model

WASHINGTON — The White House is defending the overly optimistic economic models it used to justify the historic stimulus plan.

Four months after the stimulus was passed, unemployment is far higher than expected and continuing to rise. It is even higher than the White House predicted it would have been without the stimulus.

Vice President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, says that when the forecast was issued, figures were not yet complete on how bad the economy was during the last three months of 2008.

But Bernstein says that doesn’t call into question the model that Obama is using to promise the creation or saving of 3.5 million jobs.