Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Stimulus Reality Check

If you're ever wondering who to believe about the stimulus. Or about anything, really.

"The stimulus [...] has had no effect on jobs. None. Not anywhere." - Rush Limbaugh, six weeks ago

"Where are the jobs?" - John Boehner, six days ago

"The legacy of the stimulus isn’t jobs or economic growth – it’s more dangerous debt." - Sarah Palin, six days ago

"John Edwards and Tiger Woods have had a better year than the stimulus bill [...] If you spend nearly a trillion dollars, you should create at least a few jobs." - Mitch McConnell, five days ago

"We now know there was $860 some billion spent in the stimulus bill, and it didn't work. It was a failure. Jobs weren't created." - Eric Cantor, five days ago

"CBO estimates that in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009, ARRA (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) added between 1.0 million and 2.1 million to the number of workers employed in the United States, and it increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by between 1.4 million and 3.0 million. [...] CBO also estimates that real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent higher in the fourth quarter than would have been the case in the absence of ARRA." - The Congressional Budget Office, today

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