Contrary to the false claims of critics, the federal economic stimulus is working well

Most modern American parents – especially those who are fortunate enough to have been able to raise their children in at least some modest level of comfort – will at some point witness their child display an amazing degree of ignorance about (and lack of appreciation for) all that the parent has done for the overall well-being of the household.

Often this conversation occurs when a young teenager begins to fantasize about leaving home. "I could support myself," argues the frustrated and freedom-seeking child. "I could get a job and a roommate."

"Oh, really?" replies the parent, "and who will pay for the rent and insurance and groceries and gasoline and car repairs and electricity and cable TV and Internet and dinners out and fifteen other essentials that I pay for now?" 

To which the child may well reply: "You just want to control me and tell me what to do!"

A public policy world equivalent

Does this sound familiar? Even if you're not a parent of a teenager it ought to because there's a similar conversation occurring right now in the public debate over the federal Recovery Act – better known as the "stimulus bill" – that Congress and the President put into place earlier this year.

In this instance, the role of the responsible parent is being played by the President and the other authors of the stimulus, while the role of petulant, spoiled, and oblivious child is being neatly filled by the whining pols and pontificators on the ideological right.  

Think about it for a minute: consider where the nation was when the Obama administration came into office in January and where it stands now.

Six months ago, the economy was in a terrifying freefall. Many serious experts were genuinely concerned about a broad-based economic collapse and the onset of a modern Great Depression.

In response, operating with remarkable speed and no real time for study, the President and Congress pushed through a complex and controversial $787 billion package of tax cuts and new spending that was designed to arrest the fall, allow the economy to catch its breath and set the nation of the path to recovery.

So far, it has worked almost exactly as it was designed. Job losses, home foreclosures, business failures, stock market declines, and several other negative indicators have all slowed significantly or even turned around. State budget shortfalls – though large and problematic – have not been catastrophic. Unemployment compensation and other essential public benefits for those in need have been bolstered.

In short, as the result of tough, necessary, unsexy, often behind-the-scenes government action, crisis has been averted, suffering has been minimized, and prospects for the future have been brightened significantly. 

As Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argued persuasively this week regarding the stimulus, "Without it, the economy and the job prospects for millions of Americans would be worse."

As Greenstein also noted:

"Economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com projects that at the end of 2010, the unemployment rate will be almost two percentage points lower than it would have been without the stimulus. [The Congressional Budget Office] projects that the stimulus will boost employment substantially — by about 2.5 million jobs by the second half of 2010."  

Oblivious children

But don't try and convey Greenstein's or Zandi's messages of realism and cautious optimism to the complainers on the right. Across the nation, conservatives have attacked the stimulus, mocked it, attempted grandstanding efforts to reject it in their individual states, and, more recently (and most maddeningly), pretended as if the gradual economic turnaround that has begun to take hold had nothing to do with it.

Like spoiled children, oblivious to all their parents have done to make their comfortable lives possible, attackers on the right have attempted to portray the president and the congressional authors of the stimulus as somehow responsible for the hard economic times of the present- as if the stimulus was the cause of the bad parts of the current situation, rather than the impetus for the rebound that's starting to take hold.

Here's what Locke Foundation staffer had to say just a couple of weeks ago:

"The state's continuing struggles with unprecedented unemployment offer more proof that the federal government has done nothing to stimulate the economy. In fact, increased government spending cannot stimulate the economy. Increased government spending is a drag on the economy."

Here's North Carolina Republican Party chair, Tom Fetzer:

"Are we creating jobs, or are we creating more benefits? It's not what we were sold on the stimulus money going for, which was to create jobs, principally in the private sector."

(Fetzer's inane comments, by the way, were actually shot down by another Locke-affiliated analyst, Mike Walden of N.C. State, who patiently explained that a dollar spent on food stamps or unemployment has the same stimulus effect as a dollar spent on highway construction.)  

And then, of course, there is the embarrassing, you-can't-make-this-stuff-up performance of politicians like Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana who, after making a big stink about attempting to reject federal stimulus money, turned around and held publicity events in which he handed giant checks (funded by the stimulus) to worthy causes with his name on the checks!

Setting the record straight

As most responsible parents are well-aware, one of the principal characteristics of an adolescent is the child's belief that he or she stands at the center of the universe. Self-sacrifice, concern for others, awareness of how one connects to and depends upon one's family and the broader society: these are seldom strong suits of the self-centered youth.

And so it is on the modern political right – a place where the analysis of the federal stimulus package pretty much distills down to:

"Waaahhh! Things are still bad."

"Waaahhh! We could have done that by ourselves."

"Waaahhh! You just want to control us and tell us what to do."

Fortunately, in most families, despite all of the tantrums and self-centeredness and obliviousness, responsible parenthood usually prevails. Most loving moms and dads shake their heads, give a little sigh and adhere to the faith that, in the end, things will be better if they pull together and keep their eyes on the long-term, rather than merely gratifying their child's immediate desires.

This is clearly the approach that President Obama and his team bring to the national economic recovery. As the President patiently explained at a town hall meeting in Raleigh this week,

"So, we know the tough times aren't over. But we also know that without the steps we have already taken, our troubled economy – and the pain it's inflicting on North Carolina families – would be much worse."

Let's hope most Americans hear and heed the President's words and dismiss the complaints of the stimulus critics for what they are: the irrational whining of a self-centered and short-sighted group that still has a lot to learn.