Obama's "Failed Stimulus"

I'm getting sick and tired of everyone referring to Obama's "failed stimulus".

But what really bugs me is that almost no one is bothering to point out that the stimulus actually prevented the Second Great Depression.

The vast majority of economists agree that the economy needed stimulus, funded by deficit-spending.

And they were right.

(In looking at that graph, note that Obama signed the 'Recovery Act' in February of 2009).

I understand that the recovery wasn't as strong as that flouted by Obama's advisers when they were trying to pass the bill. I get it. Either the economists were wrong. Or they over-stated their case in order to get the legislation passed. Just like Colin Powell "over-stated" the evidence for WMDs, and President Bush "over-stated" the need to give $1 trillion to Wall Street in September of 2008 with no strings attached.

If McCain had won, he surely would have signed a large stimulus bill in his first month in office, just like Obama did. And it would have had similar results to the bill Obama signed.

And every Republican would have been touting the brilliant policy signed by President McCain in order to pull us out of the Bush Tailspin. The only reason everyone with an '(R)' next to their name hates the stimulus so much is because it was done on Obama's watch.

(And of course we'd be in better shape now if Bush had signed a similar bill before leaving office, instead of borrowing from the next generation to write a big check to Wall Street).

Even three years after the death of Lehman Brothers, conservative publications like The Economist are still recommending "short-term stimulus and medium-term deficit reduction". In other words, the 2009 stimulus was too small.

Can we step back from the political bickering for a minute to actually think about what's best for the country? The GOP isn't stupid. They know the economy needed stimulus, and still needs stimulus. But they also know that if the unemployment rate stays above 9%, they might beat Obama in 2012. If it wasn't hurting real people, I would applaud the ingenuity of this strategy.