February marks the 10th anniversary of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, also known as the “economic stimulus law”) which was designed to stimulate an American economy in freefall. The legislation for “shovel-ready” transportation projects, more generous unemployment and food stamp benefits, and various temporary tax relief for individuals and businesses, was estimated, at the time, to cost $787 billion — more than the 2009 annual Pentagon budget.
The key purpose of the stimulus law — which had been designed and enacted almost entirely on a partisan basis — was to create “jobs, jobs, jobs.” The incoming Obama administration estimated that the law would create “between three and four million jobs by the end of 2010” while keeping the unemployment rate under eight percent. None of that happened. Instead, total employment fell by another four million jobs in two years, and as unemployment soared to 10 percent, Americans asked “where are the jobs?”
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