Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. acknowledged Sunday that the administration made a mistake in assessing the depth and gravity of the nation’s economic crisis but predicted stepped-up job creation as more money in the economic stimulus package rolls out.

“...the truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited ... but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “No one anticipated, no one expected that that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having distributed the bulk of the money.”

He conceded that the current unemployment rate, 9.5 percent, is “much too high,” and “what we have to do, is we have to, as this [stimulus] rolls out, put more pace on the ball. The second hundred days, you’re going to see a lot more jobs created. And the reason you are is now all of these contracts for the over several thousand highway projects that have approved.”

Even though many economic conditions were inherited from the previous administration, Biden said, ‘It’s now our responsibility. So the second question becomes ... is it the right package given the circumstances we’re in? And we believe it is the right package given the circumstances we’re in.”

Biden, who is overseeing the recovery program, took issue with comments that the stimulus (PL 111-5) “was going to be wasteful and all these terrible projects were going to be out there, and we’re wasting money. Well, that dog hasn’t barked yet.”

When asked about allegedly wasteful projects identified by Sen. Tom Coburn , R-Okla., Biden responded that Coburn “ identified 148 of which we had already killed. And the rest I dispute. So the bottom line, though, is, I think anybody would say this has been pretty well managed so far.”

When asked about people whose unemployment benefits are due to expire, Biden responded that “look, we have increased the amount of money unemployed — those on unemployment rolls have gotten, 12 million people are getting more money because of the stimulus package. We’ve increased the number of people eligible by 2 million people. We’ve given a tax cut to 95 percent of the people who get a pay stub. They have somewhere — $60 a month out there that’s going into the economy.”

The stimulus (PL 111-5) was “set up to spend out over 18 months,” Biden said. “There are going to be major programs that are going to take effect in September, $7.5 billion for broadband, new money for high-speed rail, the implementation of the grid — the new electric grid. And so this is just starting. The pace of the ball is now going to increase.”

As far as plans for a second stimulus, Biden said, “I think it’s premature to make that judgment.”

In appearances on “Fox News Sunday,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., and Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, commented on the pace of the stimulus funds rollout.

Hoyer said he was “disappointed with the results so far, not with the stimulus. We have to get the money that is already in the stimulus bill out, and we’re looking at that. ... We’re looking at that in all the areas, through the cabinet officers, that we need to get this money out more quickly.”

“We agreed that we needed a stimulus plan, and our plan ... cost half as much and, according to the same economists, would have created twice as many jobs,” Boehner said. “All it [the stimulus] does is fund more government. If you really want to get the economy going, you have to trust small businesses and the American people to reinvest their own money. ... and allow them to keep more of what they earn.”

Biden also touched on a number of foreign policy issues during the interview: