With Stimulus Like This, Who Needs A Recession
Rory Cooper /
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a study on Wednesday, that estimates the impact of the Trillion Dollar Spending Plan being debated on the floor of the Senate this evening. They said “In the longer run, the legislation would result in a slight decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) compared with CBO’s baseline economic forecast.” That’s right, as a result of the current plan, the GDP of the United States would actually decrease according to the CBO. They go on to say that in the long run it will lower aggregate output (GDP) by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent and “the effects of the legislation would diminish rapidly after 2010”. Now those are some quotes to consider. Here are some other quotes to consider as the debate continues:
“Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste…They are opportunities to do big things.” — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
“‘this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill,’ What do you think a stimulus is? That’s the whole point. No, seriously, that’s the point. Now I got carried away…” — President Barack Obama to the House Democratic Retreat, complaining about his critics calling it a spending bill.
“Everything that he talked about during the campaign that can be seen as stimulus is going to be in that package…it will be one of the heaviest pieces of legislation passed by Congress in the last 20 years, and I mean heavy in terms of actual weight and page numbers.” — Paul C. Light, professor at New York University’s graduate school of public service
“On this page in October, I declared my support for a stimulus. But the fiscal package now before Congress needs to be thoroughly revised. In its current form, it does too little to raise national spending and employment. It would be better for the Senate to delay legislation for a month, or even two, if that’s what it takes to produce a much better bill. We cannot afford an $800 billion mistake.” –Economist Martin Feldstein
“I won” –President Obama