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Stimulus didn't even come close to working
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| Parent(s) |
Issue
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Oct 10, 2010 10:41pm |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Media | Newspaper - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
| News Date | Sunday, October 10, 2010 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | If government spending can stimulate economies, how did the U.S. economy ever tank in the first place?
Based on spending, our economy should be stronger than ever.
When George W. Bush became president, total federal spending was $1.8 trillion. When he left office eight years later - in January 2009 - federal spending topped $3.4 trillion. The nation saw an 83% increase in federal spending in just eight years, yet by 2009 the country was in the second year of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.
Spending under Bush increased at more than twice the rate of spending under President Bill Clinton during the 1990s. It has continued to climb under President Barack Obama, whose fiscal 2011 budget calls for $3.8 trillion of spending.
This surge in federal spending has come on top of a surge in state and local government spending, which climbed more than $1 trillion from 2000 ($1.74 trillion) to 2008 ($2.83 trillion), according to the most recent figures in the Census Bureau's annual survey of state and local government finances.
And still we hear from some quarters that government needs to spend more, more and more in "economic stimulus."
These people apparently have forgotten that in 2008, with the downturn underway, Bush signed into law a $168 billion "stimulus" that was supposed to restore economic health. It did not. |
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