Juan Williams tries to penetrate the impermeable membrane of stupid by explaining that the American Recovery Act actually worked. I guess he’s a glutton for right-wing abuse. He also should have pointed out that the Republicans are the ones with blueberry pie on their faces. They were the ones eating the pie.
It is important to keep in mind the dire condition of the economy when the stimulus passed. It was hemorrhaging jobs at the rate of hundreds of thousands per month. During President Bush’s last full month in office, December 2008, the economy lost 779,000 jobs. More jobs were lost that month than in any other single month in the previous 60 years. The GDP, the measure of all economic activity in the country, dropped by an unprecedented 9 percent in the final quarter of 2008.
The stock market took an enormous hit, along with the values of people’s homes and other financial assets.
Still, Republicans lambasted the stimulus plan as socialism, a bailout and the government picking winners and losers.
President Bush had pretty much destroyed this country before he lost 779,000 jobs during his last full month in office. And he couldn’t have done it without the lockstep support of Republicans, particularly in Congress. They screwed things up. And then they were virtually unanimous in opposing the new president’s effort the set things right. That we’ve come this far with no help from the people responsible for creating this mess is a minor miracle. I can imagine how good things would be if the Republicans had had an iota of contrition or any sense of responsibility for what they’d done.
