Biden: Challenge tougher than FDR's

WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Monday President Barack Obama "has inherited the most difficult first 100 days of any president" -- even Franklin Roosevelt.

Speaking at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, Biden said the problems facing the United States are more complex than those faced by Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 during the Great Depression.

"This president has inherited the most difficult first 100 days of any president, I would argue, including Franklin Roosevelt," Biden said.

"It was clear the problem Roosevelt inherited. This is a more complicated economic (problem). We've never ever been here before -- here or in the world," Biden said.

The vice president asserted that no other president has "gotten off to the start (Obama has) gotten off to."

"Not merely in terms of his continued popularity … but he's actually, actually done things that have not been done before."

Biden urged the gathering of Democrats to work to get Obama's budget passed in Congress.

"Our friends on the right say we can't afford this budget," he said. "Well I say without equivocation -- I speak for Barack Obama when I say -- we can't afford not to have this budget."

Biden said the administration was willing to compromise "on the margins" to get the budget passed.

"There may be a better way to deal with energy. A better way to deal with health. A better way to deal with education," he said. "But we will not compromise on the need to invest in all three of those enterprises."