Many economists, including Paul Krugman, have said that the American Recovery and Reconstruction Act (i.e., the stimulus) was neither large enough nor long enough to do the job of restarting the economy.
Be that as it may, Republicans and Obama (should I be saying “Republicans including Obama”?) have practiced a degree of austerity since the start of 2010 which has undone virtually all the stimulative effects of the ARRA. How do we know? The nonpartisan CBO published an analysis. (See the linked Krugman blog post for a chart.) And guess what… we’re almost back where we were before the stimulus in terms of effect on GDP. That’s right… the impact of the stimulus has effectively been nullified in less than two years.
I’m sure the GOPers are creaming their pants with joy about this. I wonder about Obama…
