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For starters, there is voluminous evidence that the stimulus did provide real stimulus, helping to stop a terrifying free-fall, avert a second Depression, and end a brutal recession. America's top economic forecasters -- Macroeconomic Advisers, Moody's Economy.com, IHS Global Insight, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and the Congressional Budget Office -- agree that it increased GDP at least 2 percentage points, the difference between contraction and growth, and saved or created about 2.5 million jobs. The concept of "saved or created" has inspired a lot of sarcasm -- Obama joked after his 2009 Thanksgiving pardon that he had just saved or created four turkeys -- but it simply means 2.5 million more people would have been jobless without the Recovery Act. The unemployment rate might still be in the double digits.
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Of course, as Obama's critics on the left and right correctly point out, the 8 percent U.S. jobless rate is still terribly high. And there's no way to run a double-blind study of an alternative U.S. economy without the stimulus, so there's no smoking gun to prove the stimulus launched a recovery. But the ballistics certainly match. The economy shrank at a Depression-level rate in the fourth quarter of 2008, and job losses peaked in January 2009. After the stimulus bill passed in February, however, output had its second-biggest quarterly improvement in 25 years, and employment had its biggest quarterly improvement in 30 years. The recession officially ended that June. A Washington Post review of Recovery Act studies found six that showed a positive economic effect versus one useful study (by prominent Republican economist John B. Taylor) that concluded the stimulus failed -- and critics noted that Taylor's data just as easily support the conclusion that the stimulus was too small.
If you keep telling yourself that... if you keep yelling it at the top of your lungs... if all you believers stand together, hand in hand and chant "it worked" until you lose your voice...
yes, because one thing we've all learned from school, taking money out of the economy, causes people to spend more.. haha.. OP, do you really believe that?
Well something has prevented the US unemployment rate from being at a steady 30+%. Military spending cannot account for all of it so I think the stimulus worked as described. The current unemployment rate of near 9% just reflects the depth of the collapse and given the situation is remarkably low.
It's been interesting to see the number of Republican congressmen who voted against the stimulus, but then proudly boasted to their districts about the money that they obtained for them. Paul Ryan was one of them.
oh, btw, I just noticed this is the same guy that was on MSNBC the other day proclaiming that Obama spent $1.3M in the stimulus bill and saved 1.5M people from becoming homeless.. yes thats right folks, just $.80 will save YOUR HOME..
Well something has prevented the US unemployment rate from being at a steady 30+%. Military spending cannot account for all of it so I think the stimulus worked as described. The current unemployment rate of near 9% just reflects the depth of the collapse and given the situation is remarkably low.
No yelling needed. Just observation.
So comrade obama is your hero because he has kept the unemployment rate below 30%? I love the way democrats think..
After a statement like that, I want to see YOUR tax returns..!
Absolutely everything obama has done is bad for the country, and he wants it that way. He is working hard to turn this country into North Korea.
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