The Congressional Budget Office has issued a report on the economic effect of the “stimulus” bill, and the Obots are giddy. They are all quoting the same passage:
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 …
They obviously believe this vindicates the Keynesian boondoggle cooked up by Congress and the President at the beginning of the year. Only it doesn’t. Arnold Kling explains:
Back in March, the CBO ran a simulation model of the economy, with and without the stimulus. The difference between the two simulations gives you the predicted increase in employment and GDP.
Recently, the CBO repeated the exercise. Lo and behold, the differences were the same. This says nothing about what happened in the real world.
All this exercise really tells us, as Kling patiently explains, is that the Congressional Budget Office has not changed the assumptions built into its macro simulation model.
Will this inconvenient reality prevent Obama-friendly bloggers and the “news” media from promulgating the claim that the porkulus package has been a resounding success? Nope.
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