Last month, the CBO released its analysis of the economic impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or what’s better known as the stimulus for the second quarter of the year. That report said that although the effects of the stimulus are waning, the economic situation of the country would’ve been worse without it.The reason unemployment went up overall is because the stimulus wasn't big enough. Unemployment could have been as high as 11% to 12%, but the stimulus kept it down to 10% (at its highest). So yes, it is possible for unemployment to rise a the same time the stimulus is working (think of it as your fever rising, but to a lesser degree, because you took half an aspirin instead of the whole thing - had you taken no aspirin at all, your fever would have been much worse). It's not that difficult a concept to grasp, but the Republicans are hoping the public is gullible enough to buy their lies, and sadly, they often are.
Specifically it said the stimulus raised real gross domestic product by between 0.8 and 2.5 percent, lowered unemployment by 0.5 to 1.6 percent and increased jobs by 1 to 2.9 million.
Even as it loses steam, the CBO still estimates the stimulus will raise real GDP in 2012 by 0.3 to 0.8 percent and create 0.4 to 1.1 million jobs.
I'm still waiting for the mainstream media to do some stories on why the GOP keeps lying about the stimulus. It's all well and good for first read to publish the CBO data, but how about a story looking at why the GOP talking points about the President's speech tonight YET AGAIN include lies about the stimulus?
