‘Everything people think they know about the stimulus is wrong’(Michael Grunwald)

Washington Post ^ | September 9, 2012 | Ezra Klein with Michael Grunwald

[presidio9]

Ezra Klein: Let’s begin with the obvious question. Did the stimulus work?

Michael Grunwald: Everything people think they know about the stimulus is wrong. It was called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and it did produce a short-term recovery. We dropped 8.9 percent of GDP in Q4 2008. We lost 800,000 jobs in January 2009. We passed the stimulus. And then the next quarter we saw the biggest jobs improvement in 30 years.

The long-term reinvestment part is working. It spent $90 billion for clean energy when we were spending just a few billion a year. It’s doubled renewable energy. It’s started an electric battery industry from scratch. It jump-started the smart grid. It’s bringing our pen-and-paper medical system into the digital age. It’s got Race to the Top which is the biggest education program in decades. It’s got the biggest middle-class tax cuts since the Reagan era. It prevented seven million people from falling behind the poverty line.

EK: That gets to one of the central political problems the stimulus had, I think. It was called the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Reinvestment side was composed of long-term investments to jump-start tomorrow’s economy. But since it’s thought of entirely as a stimulus bill, those investments, which in another context would be huge accomplishments, are seen as a distraction from the central work of the law.

MG: Politically, one of the difficulties was the two-part messaging. You’re doing short-term recovery and transforming the economy in the long term. You’re doing tax cuts and spending. You’re doing stimulus now, and you’ll pivot to fiscal responsibility. You’re doing shovel ready and also looking for shovel worthy.

But after the financial crisis, everyone knew it wasn’t going to turn around quickly. That changes the rules on timely,

[3Fingas]

“stimulus now...pivot to fiscal responsibility later”..
There will be no “fiscal responsibility” later. There never is. Answer me this though, if the stimulus was so successful, why do we still have trillion+ deficits and why is job creation not even keeping up with population growth and the labor participation rate at the lowest levels since the 1980’s? I will answer it for you: Obama’s policies have failed. All the snake oil and diversionary rhetoric in the world will not change that salient fact.

[Smokin' Joe]

Not losing weight on the Atkin’s Diet? You’re not eating enough meat.

That's not how it works. Y'see, if you have one 'cheat day' a week, and you are losing 2 lbs a week, just imagine what you could lose with two 'cheat days'! Why, you could double your weight loss!

And if you had seven, seven!! 'cheat days', why those pounds would just melt away!!!

That's closer to how the stimulus works...

[presidio9]

Bad choice of metaphors, because I have never been on a diet.

Tom Couglin: "The running game has been completely ineffective for us. Therefore we need to call more running plays."

[presidio9]

The "green energy" claims are questionable as well. Maybe in 20 years somebody will look back and praise the stimulus for its energy effects, but so much can happen over 20 years that it would be hard to say that what was done in 2008 or 2009 was critical.

I posted on an earlier thread that no serious journalist thinks that solar will providing 10% of our energy needs any time soon. Then I saw a program the other night on the Science may provide 10% of our energy needs by 2030. So that is a BEST case scenario, and it assumes future technological advances, made possible (I assume) by further taxpayer "investment." So if we give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume we can get another 5-10% from windpower (already conceeded by the green crowd as NOT the "most promising" solution), and nuclear is out of the question, where does the other 80-85% of our energy needs come from? Magic beans?

This entire conversation is madness I tell you.

[grundle]

This contains a lot of info about the stimulus, and debunks a lot of the lies that Obama told about it:

Here are 95 examples of Barack Obama’s lying, lawbreaking, corruption, and cronyism

[Brad from Tennessee]

The Iraq war cost about $1 trillion. With interest the “Stimulus” cost about $1 trillion. Which expenditure created more jobs?

[presidio9]

The Iraq war cost about $1 trillion. With interest the “Stimulus” cost about $1 trillion. Which expenditure created more jobs?

Here or in Iraq? (one job in the red column...)