Cancel 2016.2
The Almighty
First, you seem awfully close to advocating a central-planning economic theory: you want the government to go out and buy things. Second, this isn't the same stimulus logic that Bush used. The Bush logic was "give everybody some cash reagardless of how they'll use it." The logic here is keep people employed that we can assure will be kept employed through direct transfer payment to state and local government.
That is the logic huh? Is that why the states are saying the jobs are only temporarily saved and that they will likely be lost once the stimulus from the fed stops?
Actually, it is one of the best ways to keep the economy from tanking further. Of course, you'll have to credit the CBO and Moodys and all the usual suspects to agree with me so I won't hold my breath. The transfers to state and local governments were to keep people employed that would otherwise have been laid off with states cutting back on spending. Everyone agrees that the transfer payment to the states were the most effective stimulus measures. Naturally, state aid was one of the things that the "centrists" cut.
I agree that it was an effective way to keep the public sector employed. But the problem is that it did little to CREATE jobs. Like the Bush 'send out a check' plan... it is a STOP GAP measure.