CBO says stimulus a bigger success than expected
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus bill, has created millions of jobs and in fact has had an even bigger economic impact than expected.
“CBO estimates that in the first quarter of calendar year 2010, ARRA’s policies:
- Raised the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.2 percent,
- Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.5 percentage points.
- – Increased the number of people employed by between 1.2 million and 2.8 million, and
– Increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by 1.8 million to 4.1 million compared with what those amounts would have been otherwise.
In March 2009, the CBO predicted that as a result of the stimulus, employment today might be as much as 2.3 million than it would have been without the law. The updated report puts that number as high as 2.8 million.
In other words, the stimulus that according to some hasn’t created one single job has been and continues to be an important success. Times are still hard, but without ARRA, millions of Americans working today to support their families would instead be on the unemployment line, collecting UI benefits.
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409 comments Add your comment
Samantha
May 26th, 2010
8:47 pm
Obama just borrowed 145 billion from the Chinese to give to the Greeks. Then he borrowed 15 billion to give to the Brazillians. When does this insanity end?
Eye on Williamson » The Texas budget and the stimulus – Perry and the GOP should be thanking the federal government
May 26th, 2010
10:54 pm
[...] the recent CBO report shows the stimulus has worked, and worked well, CBO says stimulus a bigger success than expected. This is important because as Perry, Dewhurst and the rest of the GOP in Texas crow about their [...]
JG
May 27th, 2010
2:26 am
At a cost of full time employment jobs of $210,243.90- $478,888.89 based on the numbers above and an approximated $862,000,000,000.00 cost, I’m sure we can the stimulus bill a victory. Most of the spending being upfront (we’ll say first four years) almost makes this a deal if you assume the higher efficiency numbers with an assumed median income of around $50,000.
I don’t think anybody denies the government should have done something to stabilize the economy, but what they did was a bit ridiculous in terms of cost and methodology. Now all that money that has been spent in this (plus interest) will have to be pulled out down the road at some point via taxes rather than leaving cash moneys to grow the economy. True story.
RRD
May 27th, 2010
1:40 pm
Even if you take the CBO numbers seriously, does anyone think that a job creation program that costs about $400,000 for every $40,000 a year job it creates is a good investment?
StewartIII
May 27th, 2010
9:12 pm
NewsBusters: Media Tout CBO Stimulus Numbers, Ignore Their Disconnect From Reality
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/05/27/media-tout-cbo-stimulus-numbers-ignore-their-disconnect-reality
Samantha
May 28th, 2010
7:40 am
How embarassing for Jay. These numbers were picked out of the air by the CBO and Jay thinks it’s gospel. Like most ot the left he is incredibly gullible when Obama is involved.
Don G.K.
July 2nd, 2010
4:29 pm
Please…. ler me know what you are drinking…. I want some..
Matt
August 25th, 2010
10:05 pm
Jay, my 8 year old daughter knew that report was garbage. You’d think you would too.
Yes, the stimulus worked. No, really, it did. :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper
September 7th, 2010
1:56 pm
[...] the Keystone Research Center to the massive economic consensus, via the Philadelphia Business Journal: Unemployment would be above 14 percent in [...]