Economist Disappointed With Stimulus Plan

By Justin Duckham-Talk Radio News Service

The recession may be coming to a close, but according to Barry Bosworth, the Senior Fellow in the Brooking Institution’s Economic Studies Program, the stimulus plan may not be responsible. In Bosworth’s judgement, the $787 billion measure to jumpstart the U.S. economy has been a disappointment.

“The problem with the stimulus program has been that it has taken too long to get it going. The crisis hit in mid September [of 2008], Congress never acted until the Spring, and then it takes a couple of months for the government agencies to get it set up,” said Bosworth during a panel discussion at the Brookings Institute Thursday.

However, Bosworth added, the stimulus plan can still prove useful.

“Most of the money is going to be spent in the future. It is going to be a big plus in driving us out of the recession,” Bosworth said. “Don’t give up on it, but what’s really disappointing is that recession after recession the same thing happens: we can not get the political process to act fast enough.”

Bosworth criticized provisions of the stimulus that were not intended for immediate economic relief, claiming that individual interest groups had capitalized on the crisis to push unrelated agendas.

Arlington County (Va.) Board member Christopher Zimmerman, who joined Bosworth on the panel, disagreed with Bosworth’s assertion. Zimmerman responded that while not all of the aspects of the stimulus plan provided an instant boost to the economy, many will provide long term benefits.

“All that stuff that’s being done that may not be great for stimulus are things that we actually need in this country to generate the economy that will take care of things like deficits and other expenditures we need to make in the future,” Zimmerman said.