The Republican Party, or GOP, is running a new commercial designed to criticize the first, and much needed, Economic Stimulus Package. The problem with the GOP take is that it’s just plain stupid.
Anyone who took macroeconomics knows that when business investment is low, and consumer investment is down, the one way to make sure that any economy – not just the American economy – is growing is to increase government spending. The spending has to be applied in such a way as to cause or sustain economic growth.
That’s what the economic stimulus did, even though, at $800 billion, it was much smaller than the recommended $1.4 to $2 billion. Thus, the unemployment rate has been stuck at around 8 percent, whereas it would have been at 7 percent.
But the good news is the American Economy has consistently grown under the Obama Administration – we’ve only had one quarter of non-growth over President Obama’s term, and that was the first quarter of it. Since then, and because of the Economic Stimulus, the economy has consistently grown.
Can you imagine where we would be if the GOP were running things? I’ll tell you: in the tank. Unemployment would have been much worse, in the 12 percent range at best, without an Economic Stimulus package.
Stay tuned.