The stimulus isn't working? Sorry, but the facts say otherwiseby: Michael MarshFri Jan 29, 2010 at 11:32:48 AM EST |
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Since the stimulus was passed early last year, the GOP criticized the President's plan as both "too big" and "a waste of money". They said it would do nothing to turn around the economy, and would just drive up the debt.
So what's happened since it was passed? |
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A year ago, our economy was shrinking at a rate of more than 5% per year- the biggest collapse we have seen in almost 60 years. Nine months ago- President Obama's first quarter on the job- our economy was shrinking at a rate of more than 4% per year. These back-to-back declines were the largest since the Great Depression.
The economic data for the final quarter of 2009 came out today from the BEA. Guess what- it says our economy is now growing at rate of 6.4% annual rate. That's an astonishing 11% turnaround in less than 12 months. You have to go back more than 60 years to see that big a swing- pretty remarkable. And something that President Obama is getting zero credit for from the opposition party. That's not so remarkable. They have already swept the economic disaster left us by Bush and Co.'s demand for ever larger tax cuts and deregulation into the great memory hole. By November, their story will be the economy collapsed in early 2008 because it anticipated Obama's election, and only their intransigence saved us. |