The Government Stimulus

In these current economic times, people have lost jobs. People have lost faith in the economy since the worth of their money keeps falling. Businesses are failing left and right because of the lack of confidence in the system. Banks have folded because of the amount of people who are unable to pay their loans, leaving the banks without funds. The auto industry is failing as people cannot afford the new cars being produced by Detroit. Confidence in the economic system of the United States is very low. How can the country recover from this economic recession? Some economists would say that the government should step in to save the day by pumping funds into the system. President Obama signed a massive stimulus bill in an attempt to turn the economy around. The question is, was this bill actually useful, or is it just a waste of the US taxpayer’s hard earned dollars? Did the economy turn around because of the bill, or would it have recovered just fine on its own? Finally, are the provisions in the bill actually good for the public at large, or is it just a waste of tax dollars on pork barrel spending projects and agendas? These are questions that must be answered to get to the heart of one of the most expensive legislative actions in the history of the United States.

The goal of the economic stimulus package is to improve the economic health of the United States. According to Keynesian economic theory, an increase in government spending should increase the Nation’s GDP . That is the main purpose of the stimulus package. The question is how much is this package expected to improve the economy? According to Macroeconomic Advisers (a forecasting firm), the GDP was expected to increase by 3.2%, while unemployment should fall by 1.1%, an...

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