The Real Recovery | December 01, 2009 | 19 comments

CBO: Recovery Act saved/created as many as 1.6M jobs

source: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/69923-cbo-stimulus-saved-or-created-as-many...

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The stimulus bill enacted earlier this year has resulted in as many as 1.6 million jobs saved or created this fall, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Monday evening.

The nonpartisan CBO said in a legally mandated report that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) had resulted in between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs for the U.S. economy that wouldn't have existed in the absence of the stimulus.

Additionally, the CBO said, gross domestic product (GDP) was as much as 3.2 percent higher than it would have been in the absence of the stimulus.

CBO Director Douglas Elmondorf wrote on his official blog:

Looking at the actual amounts spent so far (where identifiable) and estimates of the other effects of ARRA on spending and revenues, CBO has estimated the law’s impact on employment and economic output using evidence about how previous similar policies have affected the economy and various mathematical models that represent the workings of the economy. On that basis, CBO estimates that in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million people were employed in the United States, and real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher, than would have been the case in the absence of ARRA.


The White House had claimed in its own estimate of the recovery act's impact that the stimulus bill had saved or created roughly 640,000 jobs since going into effect earlier this year.

Republicans had attacked the White House jobs figures as "trying to cover up economic reality by manufacturing job numbers out of thin air" when the Obama administration released those data.

The CBO said that the White House's model for analyzing the stimulus were not comprehensive, and that its own analysis provided the best look at the impact of the stimulus so far.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/69923-cbo-stimulus-saved-or-cre...
  1. groups:
    Community,   US Politics,   Obama: The First Term,   The Real Recovery
  2. tags:
    Barack Obama,  Change,  Progress,  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
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19 comments // CBO: Recovery Act saved/created as many as 1.6M jobs

  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  

    • It's an interesting report. Doesn't matter, though. The economic scientists suggested a stimulus ought to be 2x the size of the one we got. Not to mention that 1/3 of the stimulus is flat out WASTED on tax cuts to appease the republicans.

      This is a failure but not because unemployment is high or because it's a slow process, or because the jobs are temporary. These are all reasons why it is necessary. No, the failure is because it was a deflated shell of a bill that was negotiated and weakened so that it wouldn't be as effective as it needed to be.

      You have to be economically brain dead to think that this hasn't had a good impact on the economy. Unfortunately, it is so much less than what we needed.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  

    • Oh yea! help save the planet plant something that will produce something to eat. I have started planting friut trees and saving small trees that would get mowed over other wise. Every little bit counts:-)

    • 2 years ago
  • Stentor
    • 0
      Stentor  

    • How many of these were in the non-existent Congressional districts? There is no hard data. 600K to 1.6M is quite a spread (2.6x) Take the whopping amount of money that was spent on the Stimulus, and divide it into the jobs supposedly saved, and remember that this money was taxed away from productive people, and put on the debt tab. The Stimulus has been a hugely expensive failure.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • shanklinmike
    • 0
      shanklinmike  
    • Image

    • Haha, a government program telling the media that the government did something good.....who would've thought......

      Do people actually fall for this stuff? What a joke....it's called corporate welfare, and the republicans would be doing it also if they were in office. We need the libertarian party to grow, it's already the 3rd largest and growing!

      http://www.youtube.com/mikeshanklin

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  

    • Maybe people that are unemployed should lower there standards and get any job they can. I know that sounds crazy but any job beats no job. I know! I have done every thing from clean horse stalls to head shrimp on the backdeck of a boat to make ends meet. Some times you have to do things you don't want to. I use to walk down the road and pick up cans and make forty or fifty dollars a day. Thats in less than five hours. I figured it out that in a six hour walk I can make sixty to seventy dollars. I lost the ability to walk that far about a year ago. So maybe we hit a bump in the road of life we can reinvent our selves if we so choose.

    • 2 years ago
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      I will tell you what I had to file for an extension of my unemployment to go to school once. The wife and I could not have gotten by without it. I know there are many folks out there that need the benefits. I also know there are many folks out there that are abuseing them. I believe that it is needed by some and abused by others. I also see people that just missed there benefits by a week or two that had to take what ever job that came along.

    • 2 years ago
  • nkeg87
    • 0
      nkeg87  
    • bailey78:

      Some people calculate that they benefit more from unemployment than taking a job that does whatever. Why would someone want a job to do crap work and pays less than the government to do nothing? At least, those are the reason why I've heard people stop looking.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • bailey78:

      As an unemployed myself, who had a reasonable job before I can tell you guys all about it.

      They are temporary benefits, which means that you HAVE to find a job by the time the benefits expire or you are SOL, especially as a single male. There is NO advantage to staying on unemployment. It's not fun to do nothing when you could be working and making a good living.

      Abuse of unemployment is a myth. I don't even know how you would define abuse of unemployment. There is a serious stigma amongst conservatives that entitlement programs are abused. Even though it is rarely said outright, the point seems to be that it's abused more than it is needed.

      I can't help but wonder how it could be abused.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      @creditfigaro it is easy to abuse. I now quit a few people drawing unemployment right now. most of which are working under the table jobs while doing so if that is not abuse please tell what it is? others are not even looking for work while drawing unemployment. You just turning a blind eye to a problem.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • bailey78:

      Under the table jobs RARELY result in a haul of money. The employer has to pay the tax on the income instead of the worker, anyhow, unless the customer pays directly to the employee.

      Truth is, if you lose your corporate job, go on unemployment, and exhaust your benefits before getting another legitimate job, you have probably taken a major cut in pay whether you have secured an under the table position or not. This is probably the reason that unemployment is a temporary benefit. It gives you a reasonable amount of time to find a job, after which you are on your own.

      The "abuses" you are talking about can only be marginal, at best. Do you really think those people aren't spending the money, anyway? Do you think they are saving up these unemployment benefits for retirement or buying luxury autos? Hell no. People in that situation are having a terrible time. No one wants to wait tables as a career move unless they are 16 years old.

      I would say that under the table jobs are just a bonus of our economy...

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      Yea I know a grand to fifteen hundred a week under the table is chump change. No body can live on that can they? Oh yea the ladies I know that wait tables make upwards four to five hundred in a good weekend. Some do that just on friday an saturday night. But hey what do I know I'm just some guy with a computer sitting at home Not having to work at all. Life is good is it not?

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • bailey78:

      There is a big difference between 1500 a week, and 500 on a good weekend.

      REGARDLESS. These people aren't getting indefinite benefits nor are they abusing the system, they lose benefits. In addition, they are working. At least they are earning their way. I wonder how many people are stuck, unemployed, for every one of these under the table people.

      Even IF they are getting paid while still receiving benefits, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY they are earning what they did before they were laid off. I wonder what proportion of those laid off step into higher paying positions (even with unemployment benefits), particularly those who are now waiting tables, bar-tending or whatever.

      It is a valuable thing to ease people into to their new, less lucrative lifestyles.

    • 2 years ago
  • JohnA
  • Alex_Ram
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • JohnA:

      Uninformed opinions are a shameful thing, JohnA.

      @occhipij: Of course the jobs are temporary. That's the point of the stimulus. Honestly, I would enjoy having a temp job through the worst of the recession.

    • 2 years ago
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