5 Years After Stimulus, Obama Says It Worked
Source: Time
Five years ago Monday, President Barack Obama visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, his $800 billion stimulus bill. At the time, the U.S. economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month. In the fourth quarter of 2008, it had contracted at an 8% annual rate, a Depression-level free fall.
....
And so it did. The stimulus quickly became a national joke, mocked by the right as a massive boondoggle and by the left as a pathetic pittance. A year after it passed, the percentage of Americans who believed it had created jobs was lower than the percentage of Americans who believed Elvis was alive. But after an epic financial crisis, the Recovery Act did launch a recovery. The economy started growing again in summer 2009. It started adding jobs again in spring 2010.
This week, the White House will release a report documenting how the stimulus spelled the difference between contraction and growth for much of Obamas first term. Politically, the White House lost the argument over the stimulus long ago, but for Recovery Act obsessives O.K., maybe Im the only one its still nice to see the facts in black and white.
The main conclusion of the 70-page report the White House gave me an advance draft is that the Recovery Act increased U.S. GDP by roughly 2 to 2.5 percentage points from late 2009 through mid-2011, keeping us out of a double-dip recession. It added about 6 million job years (a full-time job for a full year) through the end of 2012. If you combine the Recovery Act with a series of follow-up measures, including unemployment-insurance extensions, small-business tax cuts and payroll tax cuts, the Administrations fiscal stimulus produced a 2% to 3% increase in GDP in every quarter from late 2009 through 2012, and 9 million extra job years, according to the report.
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2014/02/17/economic-stimulus-recovery-act-anniversary-obama/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true
More at the link
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)So, yeah, in that he marches to the tune of the 1%, it worked. 'Course the rest of us are still reeling but what the hell does he care?
durablend
(7,455 posts)If he didn't give all that money to the job creators, then what would we do?
Bet you want a pony too!
Steerpike
(2,692 posts)Pink with a long flowing mane! And pretty eyelashes!
a full time job would be nice too!
appacom
(296 posts)Instead of bitchin' about the president, let's work together to give him the congress he needs in 2014. Damn, I'm sick of whining ass left wingers who have hurt the president and this country as much as the right.
Steerpike
(2,692 posts)So you can quit bitching about my bitching. I voted and I have a right to bitch considering the direction of this president who seems to believe that he can only save the economy by making the rich even more fabulously wealthy and the crumbs will trickle down to me. His supply side philosophy makes me bitchy...I apologize to no one.
appacom
(296 posts)you vote, and get your friends to vote, and get them to get all their friends to vote - local school board through senate races. Bitchin' helps no one except the other side. Whining is most unattractive, and useless to boot.
seems like your world view consists of ponys and rainbows.
okaawhatever
(9,457 posts)of facts and data that don't support their positions they continually bash the President. You have to decide for yourself what some people are doing here. For me, if they refuse to acknowledge the truth when it's presented to them, I put them in troll category and ignore what they say. Sadly, there isn't a pure website anymore. People gonna hate. You'll notice it's the same people here most of the time.
Welcome to DU
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)All D, supermajority.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)The hell you say.
1000words
(7,051 posts)"... whining ass left wingers who have hurt the president and this country as much as the right."
=============================
Off to ignore you go ...
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)that would be true for ANY stimulus initiative, short of direct transfer payments. But then again, direct transfer payments would get any infrastructure work done.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)UE down to 6.7% from high of 10.2%
DOW doubled.
Housing prices stabilized.
2nd great depression averted.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!!
Steerpike
(2,692 posts)The UE Numbers are manipulated to put a happy face on a dismal situation. And the have been for decades now.
I. like many, many others liquidated my 401 K when I was fired. So the heights of the Dow does not apply to me. Really 99 percent of the wealth went to the to 1 percent.
Housing is being transfered to the more wealthy to be used as income generators.
When asked if he would give tax relief to people who liquidated their retirement funds because of job loss, President Obama said that he would not...becouse he wanted to discourage people from using their retirement funds (401 K's) to pay bills...
mission accomplished!!! I'm discouraged and Depressed!!!
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)The UE has been calculated, reported, and used as an indicator of the economy the same way for decades ... suddenly, its the wrong number to use.
I'm sorry to hear about your 401k but you did know what the penalty was for early withdraw. Investing in a 401k is a good idea, but before doing so, folks should make sure that they've saved some where between 6 months and 1 years of liquid assets in case of an emergency. That's not a new idea.
Regardless, the President didn't create the situation that caused you to liquidate your 401k. That rock was rolling down hill more than a year before he took office.
The country's economic situation would have been far worse if not for the stimulus.
Steerpike
(2,692 posts)The "Tough Shit" approach really won't work to make the situation palatable, or make your position seem reasonable. Though I do understand at this point that yours and the Presidents positions are the same...
Tough Shit to you! and Quit Whining!!! (A kinder and Gentler Argument)
Politicub
(12,165 posts)Are you an economist?
Steerpike
(2,692 posts)One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)Looks like we are still down 6,000,000 full time positions from 2007.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Folks seem to forget just how deep the hole was.
savalez
(3,517 posts)Not to mention the freeways over here in L.A. have been (are are being) widened and improved due to the Act. That alone is a great help to us commuters.
okaawhatever
(9,457 posts)unless we flip the house in 2014 it's extremely unlikely. Our only other hope is Republicans who want to show their not tea party and vote for more moderate legislation.
The stimulus helped, but sadly until we get media reform and campaign finance reform Americans won't really know the truth.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900
The Totally Unfair And Bitterly Uneven 'Recovery,' In 12 Charts HuffPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662029
65 percent of working families are living from paycheck to paycheck.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/10/why-conservatives-old-divide-and-conquer-strategy-%E2%80%94-setting-working-class-against-the-poor-%E2%80%94-is-backfiring/
95 percent of the economys gains have gone to the top 1 percent
http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/10/why-conservatives-old-divide-and-conquer-strategy-%E2%80%94-setting-working-class-against-the-poor-%E2%80%94-is-backfiring/
Billionaire wealth doubles since financial crisis
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/11/12/Billionaire-wealth-doubles-since-financial-crisis/5011384268135/?spt=hts&or=12
US Wealthy Have Biggest Piece of Pie Ever Recorded
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/11-6
Rates of unemployment for families earning less than $20,000 - have topped 21 percent
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JOBS_GAP_RICH_AND_POOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-16-08-11-23
Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html
Wall Street will get away with massive wave of criminality of 2008 - Statute of Limitations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022516719
Income gap widest ever: 95 Percent of Recovery Income Gains Have Gone to the Top 1 Percent
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/09/10/one_percent_recovery_95_percent_of_gains_have_gone_to_the_top_one_percent.html
Older Workers:.Set Back by Recession, and Shut Out of Rebound
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/booming/for-laid-off-older-workers-age-bias-is-pervasive.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3&
New Rule (Passed by Congress and signed by President Obama) signals Kiss of Death for Pensions
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100694955
THIS ^ does NOT happen by accident.
It is the result of carefully planned and implemented Economic Policy.
It requires careful preparation, marketing, buying the right politicians, message control, courts packed with Conservative Corporate Rights Judges, and the marginalization and suppression of any opposition
brett_jv
(1,245 posts)Does anybody seriously think that the situation wouldn't have been made WORSE ... by having a Republican in office like McCain or RMoney instead of Obama?
Still, I understand the sense of disappointment. Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, just shouldn't be in the 'business' of enriching the 1% at the expense of the rest of us.
But until we have Public Financing of Elections, what we see in the articles above ... is the fate we're doomed to no matter who is elected to the office of POTUS.
As it stands now, the Rich/Multinational Corps are MORE POWERFUL ... than our government. They own it, Obama included. The only way 'out' of this ... is a massive, grass-roots movement to amend the Constitution to limit the contributions from the richest of the rich.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)The only people that can "change" The System,
are the professional politicians that are dependents and products OF The System.
How do we convince them to represent us and not their 1% owners?
How many professional politicians are willing to say "Goodbye" to the perks of cushy 1% living
for themselves and their Class by biting the Hand that is Feeding Them?
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
I'm not entirely cynical.
I have some hope.
Many of our neighbors in Latin America have successfully taken their governments from the hands of their 1% through near bloodless Ballot Box Revolutions.
They have given us the Blue Print for change.
When the American Working Class and the Poor realize WE have more in common with each other
than we have with the 1% and their employees in Washington,
THEN we can have change too.
Spread the WORD.
VIVA Democracy!
We outnumber them.
on point
(2,506 posts)Steerpike
(2,692 posts)That if we had given significantly more money to the ultra rich it would have been an even more successful economy?
When has supplyside economics ever worked for the working man?
on point
(2,506 posts)such as infrastructure and the like; but the repukes continually blocked this avenue. The fed through monetary policy ended up doing the heavy lifting to pump money into the economy; even though I agree with you it was wrongly targetted at the weelthy and has created new asset bubbles in the stock market, commodity prices and housing prices (wealthy buying house to rent back to former owners). It did however, get the economy moving somewhat.
More for the wealthy at this point wouldn't help.
Besides, just because a glass of water will slake a thirst, doesn't mean drowning is even better. Fallacy in your arguement.
Steerpike
(2,692 posts)I'm a strong swimmer and there is no guarantee I would have drowned.
Fallacy in your argument...(I took ethics in college and got a B-!)
1000words
(7,051 posts)Southerner
(113 posts)Yea well, do the math. 2 to 2.5 percent of the GDP generated during that time period IS around $800 billion! Does not economic "stimulus" imply the money spent generates MORE money? And by the way, who is now going to pay off the $800 billion debt incurred? This article is definately polishing the turd.
alp227
(32,004 posts)too bad Obama decided to appease those who wanted him to fail, rather than go full FDR hell even beyond. and McClatchy has a better article, White House celebrates 5 year anniversary of stimulus, Republicans say it failed