Biden says he'll lead 'middle class task force'
Panel to review how economic policies working
Joe Biden has been named by President-elect Barack Obama as chairman of a new "middle class task force" that will review administration policies to see how they affect the middle class, the vice president-elect said in an interview to be aired today.
Obama plans to include other Cabinet members on the task force, including the secretaries of labor, education and health and human services and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Biden told George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "This Week."
(AP)
"It is designed to do the one thing we use as a yardstick of economic success of our administration: Is the middle class growing? Is the middle class getting better? Is the middle class no longer being left behind?" Biden said, according to a transcript of the interview.
"And we'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs -- the things that affect people's daily lives. I will be the guy 'honcho-ing' that policy," Biden said.
He also said he has been getting daily intelligence briefings for weeks now and he thinks Obama is right about changing the Bush's administration's policies on fighting terrorism, interrogating enemy suspects, bringing American troops home from Iraq and closing the U.S. military prison base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"I've learned nothing thus far that would change my view," Biden said.