Stimulus Success

Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked.

Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs — employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now.

If that had happened, what would the economy look like today?

Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill.

Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.

New York Times

Very nice article in the NYT today about the success of the stimulus bill which also points out what worked best (aid to states, unemployment, food stamps) and what was less stimulative (TAX CUTS!) Everybody concerned with keeping a Democratic majority in Congress this year should be posting this story on their facebook, tweeting it on twitter, and if they have a blog, linking too it. We have to cut through the bullshit and spread the word around that the stimulus made a huge difference in the economy last year and that those who opposed it (republicans) were foolish.

Just my opinion.