Dear Democrats: The Stimulus Worked, Start Acting Like It
Last edited Thu Feb 2, 2012, 04:03 PM - Edit history (2)
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/did-recovery-act-workAbout the only people on the planet who say the 2009 Recovery Act (ARRA) failed are Republicans. This is a necessary posture for them, given that not one of them voted for it. They have too much ideology vested in its failure to admit success, which is why they attack projects like Solyndra and green energy in particular. It's why the Republican governors in Republican states reject high-speed rail and other infrastructure projects. It isn't that it wouldn't be great for their states. It's simply that the funds came into being via the Democrat in the Oval Office and thin majority of Democrats in Congress, and so they just cannot, will not, bring themselves to be a party to possible success.
Their lack of patriotism is unsurprising, but still astounding in its cynicism. But was the stimulus package and overall success? Though there is a wide range of studies and opinions, the consensus among economists appears to be yes, it did.
ProPublica investigative reporter Michael Grabell decided to find out. In this interview on NPR's Fresh Air, he discusses what went right, what went wrong, what could have been done differently, and his conclusion about the overall success of the stimulus package as laid out in his new book, Money Well Spent? What Really Happened To The Trillion-Dollar Stimulus Plan.
For example, you will hear a lot from Republicans in this election year about how President Obama has failed, as did the stimulus, because unemployment percentages were not reduced to the originally-predicted 8 percent. However, Grabell notes the following:
It is the famous plan that now people talk about as, you know, Obama promised that we would be at 8 percent unemployment by - you know, we would never go over 8 percent unemployment if we passed the stimulus package.
And ultimately, if you read the actual report, the prediction was right. They predicted that the change in the unemployment rate would be about 2 percentage points with the stimulus package, and that's what we resulted in if you look at economic forecasts.
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Something this article doesn't cover though is that the Republicans threatened to filibuster every stimulus package starting with the first on (ARRA). Given the choice between 'No stimulus' (or a very much delayed one, which is much the same thing) and a very downsized one, President Obama decided to take all that he thought he would be able to get out of the 'Slash and Burn" Republicans and settled for, in every case, a downsized stimulus package. (Even after Obama agreed to the Republican demand that the ARRA be downsized by about 40% by converting much of the stimulus to tax cuts. When going into a depression people who are worried about whether they will remain employed are not likely to spend extra money gained from a tax cut. The Republicans knew this. That's why they demanded the tax cut as a condition of their cooperation. But after the Dems gave them the downsized stimulus bill with the tax cuts - NOT ONE REPUBLICAN VOTED FOR IT ANYWAY). Thus the Republicans were successful in weakening the effect of all the stimulus packages passed and they succeeded in down-sizing the delaying the recovery we have seen so far.
Republicans can now celebrate the relative success of their 'scorched Earth' policy. Millions more who would have gone back to work have not thanks to the consistent opposition by the Republicans to Obama's efforts to repair and rebuild the economy from the damage done by the Republican's Trickle Down - Deregulation Disaster.
Meanwhile, the ever accomodating, fascist-friendly Corporate Media, working hand-in-glove with the GOP, continue to pretend Obama was the only person who has been in Washington the last three years and that the Repulicans had nothing to do with what bills got passed out of Congress since Obama enterred the WH.
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sort of stratagem to make the Republicans look bad. The Republicans are duplicitous bastards who do not need any subterfuge or coaxing to engage in cynical moves pursuant to their Politics of Destruction (I believe this is a more appropriate characterization than "obstructionism"
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President Obama, rather than being guilty of machinations, has consistently proceded in Candide-like fashion offering compromise positions to the surly GOP and expecting to achieve reasonable settlements out of those whose only wish is for his political demise. Obama's only sin is that he is the man presiding over the clean-up of the Republican's Toxic Economics Calamity. He's gone the extra hundred miles to not rub their faces in their mess but they hate him nonetheless. They cannot admit that their ludicrous, crack-pot, Supply-side econocomical theory produced the most spectacular economic disaster since the Great Depression - so they must pretend he is the cause of our current economic malaise.
Now very recently, the President seems to be realizing that reasonable compromise is something that the Repunks are not the least bit interested in. I hope this epiphany is not a temporary phenomenon.
(BTW: I put the proper link to the Crooks and Liars article in the OP). It is a good read (if I DO say so myself).
