by David Epstein, ProPublica - May 15, 2009 10:00 am EDT As we pointed out on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden opted for the glass-half-full approach in his first quarterly report (PDF) to the president on the rollout of stimulus spending. The report notes that $28.5 billion is out the door, the vast majority of it to Medicaid and unemployment benefits. Yesterday, the AP decided to do a little fact-checking of the VP’s report, and found a few half-empty glasses. Biden cites an anecdote from a New Orleans business journal to back up his claim that first-time homebuyers are taking advantage of the $8,000 tax credit and “driving increased activity in the home sales market.” The IRS told AP that 567,000 tax returns claimed the credit. And yet, sales of existing homes have still fallen 3 percent since February. Biden reported that the stimulus has created or saved 150,000 jobs, a number that is highly speculative—as ProPublica has reported—and impossible to untangle from the concurrent... - Intense News