Economists: Obama’s Stimulus is a Failure

Economists Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor studied the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the Obama stimulus bill or ARRA) and found that Obama’s stimulus destroyed 1 MILLION jobs in the private sector while it created or “saved” 450,000 government jobs. That is a net total of 550,000 jobs destroyed. The economists summarize their empirical findings: Our benchmark results suggest that the ARRA created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs. State and local government jobs were saved because ARRA funds were largely used to offset state revenue shortfalls and Medicaid increases rather than boost private sector employment. The majority of destroyed/forestalled jobs were in growth industries including health, education, professional and business services. That means that Obama spent almost $1 Trillion of taxpayer money to destroy a net of about 550,000 jobs. Economists’ study: http://web.econ.ohio-state.edu/dupor/arra10_may11.pdf Hat tip: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2011/05/evaluating-arra.html, http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/05/029042.php

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~ by RIGHTpoints on May 28, 2011.