Getting the Stimulus Wrong, Again

The Democrats whiffed on the first stimulus bill, spending $800 billion to create only half the jobs promised. Now the Senate has passed a $15-billion jobs bill. This second stimulus will take too long to help with the recession but it will help inflate the deficit.

My latest column for The Week discusses the Democrats' plans for a second stimulus: the $15 billion jobs bill.

The $15-billion bill just passed by the Senate won’t help with the recession; it will arrive far too late. House Democrats are even less charitably disposed toward the Senate than usual these days; they can hardly be expected to rubber stamp the Senate’s work. So how fast could Democrats get a bill to the president for his signature? April? May? How long after that will it take for any appreciable hiring to take place? Six months?

So now we’re into 2011. By then, according to most independent economists, the recovery already visible in today’s macro-statistics will be reaching the private-sector job market. Although the government spending will get underway too late to help with jobs, it will arrive just as we are turning our attention to rising deficits and debt. And thanks to this bill, there will be $15 billion more of it – plus interest -- to discuss.

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