The economic stimulus package is a success, according to a White House stimulus record submitted Friday. Nevertheless, it has changed into a political albatross. The American Recovery and Reinvestment act is recognized by most economists as effective. The White House report gives specifics about how the stimulus met its management and execution goals to keep the economy from slipping further into a hole that it otherwise might have. Yet using the economy sputtering and an unemployment rate that remains high, the general public has gotten the opposite impression, which has been reinforced by a Republican campaign to discredit the Recovery Act as inefficient spending.
Recovery Act meets original deadline
February 2009 was when President Obama got around to signing off the economic stimulus package. About 750,000 jobs a month had been lost at the time when the private-sector imploded, reports the Washington Post. Top priority went to those who were willing to take quick action. The first 18 months of the stimulus would get many of the cash. In fact, 70 % of it was within that time period. It was not hard to satisfy the deadline. That is precisely what happened. $551 billion of the $787 billion for the bill is spent within the form of tax breaks. These tax breaks went to families, unemployed workers, companies and any person else the economic recession affected. There can be more added. $127 billion more could be added to be precise. Republicans were wrong when thinking that stimulus fraud was going to be massive during this. Criminal investigation does not happen very much. Only .2 % of contracts require this to happen.
Stimulus fraud hardly ever happened
The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was responsible to oversee the economic stimulus package that went into play. TIME accounts that the board uses computer algorithms to track suspicious spending patterns. TIME spoke with the leader of the board, Earl Devaney, who said that “you’d be crazy to steal from the Recovery Act; it’s way too transparent, with every dollar traceable at www.recovery.gov, and there are way too many eyes on it.” But TIME said transparency has had a political cost. Inefficient projects, like a mural in Montana costing $18,500, are things that make Republicans really angry about things.
Stimulus political agendas ignore truth
The Congressional Budget Office claims that joblessness rates were 1 to 2 percent lower than they would have been had the stimulus never been initiated creating 3.5 million jobs. The outcomes come, states Mother Jones, from a policy that many are taking seriously. This is what Keven Drum reports. Drum also states that that most people do not care whether or not a policy has been a good one and executed correctly which is obvious from the stimulus. Americans don’t think the Recovery Act helped everyone. About two-thirds of Americans have this opinion. The numbers predicted by the administration didn’t happen. The prediction was that joblessness would go to 8 percent. Nobody would say that it was a “failed stimulus” if they had forecasted the unemployment rate to be closer to the actual numbers.
Articles cited
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/30/AR2010093007382.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
TIME
time.com/time/nation/article/,8599,2022781,00.html
Mother Jones
motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/09/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished
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