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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (69438)	2/10/2009 12:51:11 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

What Consensus for the “Stimulus?” Brian Riedl The Corner The Obama administration has claimed that virtually all economists support their approach to "stimulus" spending. This is patently untrue. Nobel Laureates Ed Prescott, James Buchanan, and Vernon Smith recently joined 200 other economists signing a letter opposing the legislation. Other notable economists critical of the stimulus package include Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, as well as Robert Barro, Greg Mankiw, Arthur Laffer, and Larry Lindsey. Martin Feldstein, who had been the only notable conservative economist loudly supporting the stimulus, has since changed his mind. More liberal economists such as Alice Rivlin and Alan Blinder have also strongly criticized certain aspects of the spending bill. Even President Obama's own economic advisers—who are leading the fight for the "stimulus" bill—previously criticized the bill's economic underpinnings. Council of Economic Advisors Chairwoman Christina Romer (March 2007): "[C]ountercyclical fiscal policy is not achieving its intended purpose." Why? "[I]t is difficult for fiscal policy to respond quickly to economic developments." Presidential economic adviser Jason Furman (January 2008): "[I]n the past, infrastructure projects that were initiated as the economy started to weaken did not involve substantial amounts of spending until after the economy had recovered." National Economic Council Director Larry Summers (January 2008): "[P]oorly provided fiscal stimulus can have worse side effects than the disease that is to be cured.... [F]iscal stimulus, to be maximally effective, must be clearly and credibly temporary—with no significant adverse impact on the deficit for more than a year or so after implementation. Otherwise it risks being counterproductive by raising the spectre of enlarged future deficits pushing up longer-term interest rates and undermining confidence and longer-term growth prospects." President’s budget director, Peter Orszag (January 2008 CBO report he oversaw): "Large-scale construction projects of any type require years of planning and preparation. Even those that are 'on the shelf' generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy." That same CBO has joined the chorus of critics by recently releasing a report projecting that the "stimulus" will worsen the long-run performance of the economy. Lawmakers should not let themselves be bullied into voting for legislation based on a “bipartisan consensus” that does not actually exist. corner.nationalreview.com