Panelists answered the following: Five years later, would you deem the president’s economic stimulus law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a success?
Marty Richman: “No. While they all did some immediate good in the short term and in specific places, you cannot rate trillion dollar programs merely on that. So much money was just thrown away or misdirected that it resulted in what we have now an ongoing recession and a debt-ridden future. if you throw a trillion dollars into the street someone will benefit, eventually, but you do not get your money’s worth. My estimate is that this could have been done at one-third the cost and it might have been worth that. Just wait until the bill comes due.”
Richard Place: “They should have named it the Government Dependency Act.”
Jim West: “Yes. But it’s like blind men describing the elephant – you only know what touched you. If there hadn’t been federal money for “shovel ready” jobs we could have easily slid into another great depression rather than the great recession we all experienced.”
Ruth Erickson: “No! By what I remember from five years ago, I don’t think the act has been a success. We need to remember that the president’s economic and reinvestment act was paid for by us, and that the government’s funds come from we the people. The real unemployment figures are skewed by not accounting or the underemployed and those who have just given up looking. Many of the companies in which the government invested have gone bankrupt. Some banks which were baled out later paid huge bonuses to those who helped cause many of the problems.”
Mary Zanger: “Yes because much highway infrastructure work got accomplished. Now we need to stop the flight of reinvestment of the country going up in smoke for endless wars. Imagine if reinvestment stayed home to build more highways, schools, hospitals, clinics, bridges, water systems, solar panels and wind machines creating endless jobs. Imagine the humming of businesses to the tune of more people with more money to spend making USA much better.”
