The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was successful.

Now, do not get me wrong. We are still in a terrible situation with the economy right now, and there is a true jobs deficit in this country that needs to be addressed promptly. Furthermore, I do think that an argument can be made that the federal stimulus didn't spend nearly enough on state aid and infrastructure development, among other things, and spent entirely too much on weak tax-cuts.

However, what cannot be denied is the effectiveness of the stimulus as it was passed, and an argument that a second stimulus could be even more beneficial to the American public.

I have no idea why Democrats are not out on cable television and in the blogosphere trumping the latest CBO report about the effectiveness of the ARRA in the first quarter of 2011.

In short, what the CBO found out is that the ARRA:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12185/05-25-ARRA.pdf







Furthermore, the CBO stated that:



Which points to the stimulus running its course in terms of funds, and argues the need for a second, more directed stimulus.

Some progressives have a few misgivings about the President, particularly with health care. But I do not understand why the Democratic Party isn't shouting from the rooftops about the effectiveness of the ARRA and the need for an additional stimulus. Their jobs may depend on it.

for careful study later.

But it's usefulness was greatly reduced by tax cuts. If tax cuts stimulate the economy, how is it that we all didn't get rich after Bush slashed taxes?

<img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

Bring this every where I go.

is a handicap.

There is NO light at the end of the tunnel. Even though the Ritch are basking in it.

The range is so varied it shows that there is NO evidence that it worked. The range shows that someone picked the numbers out of their arse.

If a Republican had stated these number for one of their programs, everyone on DU would laugh at them.

It's impossible to show an exact number of jobs that the ARRA saved, the exact amount that the real GDP rose, etc because they are far too many factors that shape how job creation, GDP, etc grow.

These types of ranges are fairly common in such assessments.

They were warned repeatedly that it was too small, too heavy on tax cuts and rife with graft. Their answer was to attack critics.

It's highly unlikely congress will approve any additional stimulus now.

I think it was underestimated how deep the economic recession was. And yes, you are certainly right that the ARRA was riddled with far too many tax cuts and far too small on the actual job-building aspects of the stimulus. But it was clearly successful, and did help create jobs and grow the GDP.