For over a year, Mitt Romney argued on a nearly daily basis that President Obama inherited a brutal recession but then "made it worse." By March, even the Republican candidate gave up trying to say this with a straight face, and switched to a new line -- the economy improved under Obama, but the president shouldn't get credit.
Yesterday, however, Romney's running mate picked up the old talking point as his own. "Now, let's be candid, President Obama clearly inherited a very difficult situation," Paul Ryan told supporters in North Canton, Ohio. "There are no two ways about that. Problem is, he made things much worse."
Indeed, defending himself for being for and against Recovery Act investments at the same time, Ryan added the stimulus "didn't work" and "did nothing to stimulate the economy."
It's tempting to just send Ryan a copy of Michael Grunwald's new book, "The New New Deal," which is arguably the best book on the Obama presidency to date, but since I doubt he'd read it, let's instead review some charts I first published in June after Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, joined economists in arguing emphatically that the Recovery Act was a success.
Here, for example, is a chart showing the nation's GDP before and after the stimulus. Note, once the stimulus kicked in, the economy immediately started growing.
Here's a chart showing private-sector job growth before and after the stimulus. Note, once the stimulus kicked in, job growth immediately improved.
And here's a chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average before and after the stimulus. See that low point in March 2009? That's just before the stimulus kicked in.
Now, Ryan might look at this and argue, "Yeah, but the gains didn't last." That's true; they didn't. In the spring of 2010, the Eurozone debt crisis rattled international markets and through the global economy a curve ball. The U.S. gains quickly stalled, right around the time the stimulus funds started to wane. In 2011, unrest in the Middle East, coupled with a Japanese tsunami and Eurozone austerity, provided more global troubles. Ryan's caucus threatening to trash the full faith and credit of the United States didn't do us any favors.
But that's not an argument against the stimulus; it's an argument for more stimulus. The most accurate criticism of the Recovery Act comes from the left -- it was too small.
And even putting all of that aside, the economy still isn't worse than when Obama took office. Then the economy was hemorrhaging jobs, now it's adding jobs. Then the economy was shrinking, now it's growing. Then the American auto industry was on the verge of collapse, now it's thriving. Then Wall Street was collapsing, now it's climbing.
The challenge for Paul Ryan, then, is explaining why he thinks "better" means "worse," and why he believes "something" means "nothing."
The economy was failing, then the Recovery Act started spending, then conditions quickly improved. In Ryan's mind, where government spending is awful -- unless it's in his congressional district -- how is that possible? Was it magic? Was it a coincidence? How does he explain why every relevant economic metric showed sharp improvements immediately after Obama's stimulus took effect?
That's not a rhetorical question; I genuinely want to know.
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Yeah, but what about the precipitous decline in Freedom™? Because the GOP aren't just about the economics, you know. It's not all about money. Getting-and-gaining isn't the whole boundary of the world.
(Freedom™, and Free™, are registered trademarks of the Republican National Committee. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)
I'll jump in here, and explain that you are giving us a witty bit of sarcasm. Because- like the Great American Voter-our cheetos munching basement dwelling trolls do not do nuance.
You know, Republicans crow that Obama cannot run on his record, but it's really them that can't run on the truth of his solid achievements - neither can they run on their own record of stalling the economy, wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and doing jack-all to help repair the damage caused by their magical thinking policies. So, they invent a separate reality where they can "win." An uncle of mine is considered to be "mentally ill" for doing the same thing - inventing his own reality, but in our politics, Romney/Ryan counts on getting elected for it - they've got absolutely nothing else to offer.
When I was young, we had a beagle named Rusty. He lived in a doghouse and was on a chain when he was outdoors. Unfortunately, Rusty had epilepsy. Over time, the medication became less and less effective. One day, Rusty began just running - blindly - in any direction his mind would take him. He would reach the end of the chain and it would yank him to the ground, and then he would get up and do it again. It was an awful thing to see, and we had to physically hold him down until he could calm himself. Of course, we had to have him put down later that day.
What does this have to do with 2012? Well, not a whole lot, except it seems that Romney and Ryan keep running out to the ends of their chains, only to be yanked down (by the truth). I fear we may have to put them down soon, too.
i agree with the overall point of this story but am curious what is the Y-axis in the first chart %change? or GDP change in some amount of dollars (most likely trillion)?
Percentage change, year over year.
thanks that is what I thought, I'm a chemist so I kinda get worked up when people don't put axis labels...
I think that you should rename the graph the Smug graph, because of this fantastic smiley image:
http://imgur.com/6peip
why? although it is a great smiley
The lines of the former Bikini graph totally look like the little dude's smile, and the Democrats should feel pretty smug since they're the only ones who voted for the stim and it worked.
Plus, I would just love to see that image on the screen behind Rachel tonight :D
thanks for the response I can see it now
The saddest thing to me is hearing a friend say basically "give them what they want, as long as I can get a job". Sounds like a beaten down person that thinks rolling the dice has no risk at all.
Forgiving all the Congressional obstruction and complicit big businesses that are sitting on piles of capital, seeing opportunities, but just basically saying wait until a Republican is president. We can't help unemployment go down NOW, there's a Democrat President?
But Obama has acted to stave off even MORE job losses and with that, is less GDP, as the graphs clearly show.
That's been the plan all along. Fire people in droves, run up the desperation level by bitter opposition and obstruction of all recovery policies, then when they submit to your demands to control the country, hire them back at reduced wages and no benefits. Basically what happened throughout the Bush "recovery" on speed.
But God forbid you say they want to put your friend in chains. That would be a rhetorical excess.
Yeah, but no one cared about that "gaffe" besides Fox News. Republicans say so many dog-whistle racist things all the time that they've lost credibility with anyone who doesn't listen to AM radio and read Rick Warren books.
That's right, Steve.
They want working people to say something's better than nothing. Is that the American Dream? Not even close.
And yeah, nobody hears what they want to hear. The Am radio has been bought by commercial moguls that want to bang that drum AND eliminate all competition-NPR and PBS.
"The challenge for Paul Ryan, then,..."
Is to explain why that "stimulus money" that he wrote for for his district specifically citing "how it would help to create jobs" in his district - didn't do just that? Is it because the money was pilfered, or because he didn't get it? All of the GOTP Congressmen/women that wrote begging for "stimulus money" , and then posed for pictures on "shovel ready" projects need to be called out publicly every time they open their mouths saying "the stimulus money didn't work"!
Definition of worse = putting the GOTP back into office and denying to ourselves that 1) they know how to govern, 2) that they actually care about more than the 1%, 3) that the failed policies that got US into this economic calamity won't happen again!
Even a "pig in lipstick" is still a pig! Vote out the GOTP in November!!
Undetered by trivial facts and figures the republican base swallows the lies they are fed.
Things are worse now than ever! Why and how you ask? Why, because we bhave a Kenyan(black)President.How, by the welfare state attitude of this socialist(black) president
Never mind that the facts show otherwise,we know things are worse today because the FOX network tells us so.
See you in November--if they let you vote.
Steve, you're a pretty savvy guy. What do you think of these numbers? I shared the following with BarackObama.com and Democrats.org. We need to shut this @*# down! Blog about it. Air it. Commercialize it.
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First of all, consider using "Testify" by Rage Against the Machine in the campaign.
"Who controls the past now controls the future. Who controls the present now controls the past. Who controls the past now controls the future. Who controls the present now?"
Why? I hate what's happening to this country as much as most people. What all Democratic campaigns must do RIGHT NOW is attack the Republican opposition on something that only just distilled for me after reading this web site: "The National Debt is a Political Strategy" http://zfacts.com/node/106.
How heinous is it that the tax dollars of hundreds of millions of Americans have for SO LONG been funneling into and fueling this shameless appalling crash and burn power grab by those with the MOST MONEY?
I'm a creative director and web designer. I'll help you with this one, for sure!
If it is the goal of republicans to eliminate programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other social programs, then what better way than to run up the national debt and say these programs will have to be cut back or cut out.
What better way to run up the debt than to dump money into the military whether they want the money or not. The republicans can start another war and that would be good reason for more military money.
It's going to be very interesting at the end of this year to see if taxes will go up and military spending will be cut Jan.1, 2013
I wonder if we will hear a lot of talk about the need to invade Iran soon?
That's the way I see all this in the big picture view. They move things around to make it fit a known outcome. There have been others posting here saying they cannot tell us in plain language what they want policy wise. This is not popular, so they appeal to this emotion or that emotion to get people to do what they want, even when the result is NOT good for those same people.
Suddenly, the American Dream is bad because XYZ…
We need to show the positive results for people and get back to looking for how to best implement what policies for good, not take an axe to everything and CUT taxes. Scalpels and tax revenues are needed, not lashing out at everyone, even "let him die" applause. Proud? That's the thing people cannot get behind and epitomizes the wrong direction.
I think both sides are screwed in the head. Pay pay pay, rich get richer, and poor get poorer. While the middle pays for everything (most people forget that part).
I'm reading this Sunday. I see you spoke about Michael Grunwald's new book, "The New New Deal,. Why am I not surprised Chris Hayes is speaking about it today? I always knew Chris was Rachael in drag? :-}
The economy stalled when the Republicans took control of Congress in 2011 and were able to obstruct any plans to grow the economy.
Here's the problem with the stimulus... The point was supposed to be that the government would give the people some money. The people would then spend that money at businesses and then those businesses would take that increase in revenue to grow the business and create more jobs. There was one clog in the system...the business owners! The government gave the people the money. The people spent that money. The business owners took that increase in revenue and bought bigger houses or cars or thousand dollar shoes or socked it away into their overseas (NOT TAXED) bank accounts. THAT is why the stimulus didn't work...and why it won't work...GREED in our businesses!
The stimulus was not big enough because at the time the new administration was doing their calculating the quarter data that was available was Q3 '08 and was sinking at about 3.6%. Who would believe that the rate would more than double in the next quarter to over 8%. The Bush administration was holding their breath, hoping to get out of the way before the Poo hit the fan and they would get blamed for it.
I think a graph that indicates total dollars spent for GDP gain realized would be interesting.
Also the X axis on those graphs is truncated to illustrate a biased point. I'm a Democrat who loves science: I generally don't like it when facts are altered (truncated) to prove a point, regardless if the author is right or not.
If the Right Wing Tea Party gets in, the middle class will be the ones to suffer big time and the economy will decline even further than it is already. President Obama has our backs and we can not let him down.
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