Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Stimulus Added Millions Of Jobs

From an article by Andy Sullivan at Reuters:
The massive U.S. stimulus package put millions of people to work and boosted national output by hundreds of billions of dollars in the second quarter, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

CBO's latest estimate indicates that the stimulus effort, which remains a political hot potato ahead of the November congressional elections, may have prevented the sluggish U.S. economy from contracting between April and June.

CBO said President Barack Obama's stimulus boosted real GDP in the quarter by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent, adding at least $200 billion in economic activity.

During that time the economy was growing at an anemic pace.

Gross domestic product rose just 0.6 percent during that period, according to preliminary Commerce Department data which economists expect will be revised sharply lower when new figures are released on Friday.

The massive package of tax cuts, construction spending and enhanced safety-net benefits was passed in February 2009 in the midst of the deepest recession since the 1930s.

It raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs during the second quarter of this year, CBO estimated.

Measured another way, CBO said the stimulus increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by up to 4.8 million, as part-time workers shifted to full-time work or employers offered more overtime work.
I saw this report and found it very interesting and thought I would share it.  I have seen many right-wing sources insult the administration because of the CBO's estimates and I have seen those same sources attempt to discredit the CBO when the figures didn't swing their way.  It is for that reason why I point out this article - I am sure some would argue that it is impossible to gauge what would of happened had the stimulus not been passed and therefor the CBO's statements about the benefits of the stimulus should be rejected, but I think that all arguments along those lines are weak to begin with, unless you own an operational crystal ball.

Basically, the information released shows that the actions taken by the government helped the economy, not hurt it, and while Republicans believe that doing nothing was probably the best course of action, these findings show that had we done nothing, the economy would be worse off...

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