The Stimulus WORKED... we need to do more of it

[scheming daemons]

[bluestateguy]

1. It worked to prevent a recession from becoming a depression

Kind of like General McLellan winning the battle of Anteitam, but choosing not to pursue Lee into Virginia where the Union could have destroyed the rebels once and for all.

The stimulus could have done more.

To have a soild V shaped recovery with 3-5% GDP growth a year, you needed a stimulus of $1.2 trillion, devoted to infrastructure projects that would directly put people to work and state aid to save jobs in cash strapped states laying off public employees.

And no useless tax cuts, which just went right into people's pockets and stayed there. In 2008-09 people were scared about the future so when they were given tax cuts, they socked away the money for a rainy day rather than going out to buy new furniture for the house.

[scheming daemons]

2. Which is why I said we need more of it

The evidence is in.

[Selatius]

3. It's been long-overdue, and we need a second but bigger stimulus package.

Unfortunately, I believe the opportunity for that passed when Republicans assumed control of the House in January of this year.

I was and remain a critic of the original stimulus package. All that money devoted to tax cuts for various special interests should have been shoveled into a jobs program. I generally believe it would've meant a bigger economic bounce than what we did see, and now the economy is in danger of slipping back into the recession. We needed a massive WPA-style jobs program, but we got pork-barrel spending instead. Hell, to be honest, I don't think we ever really left the previous recession, at least if we look at the unemployment numbers, the real numbers anyway.

[txlibdem]

4. +1, "We needed a massive WPA-style jobs program," but we got 'shovel ready' instead

... and you *know* what you shovel, right?

Candidate Obama stated that he extensively studied FDR. I think he missed some of the important parts...

[Jim Lane]

5. What's the source of these charts?

I might try to add one or both to the Wikipedia article about the stimulus. Ideally, you'll tell me that the source is some authoritative expert or think tank who waives copyright!