The forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers said in a report that Obama’s plan — the American Jobs Act — would boost economic growth by 1.3 percentage points in 2012 and lead to 1.3 million new jobs.…





Mark Zandi, an economist with Moody’s Analytics, was even more enthusiastic about the plan. He said the jobs package would increase economic growth by 2 percentage points in 2012 and add 1.9 million jobs.

–Washington Post, September 10, 2011

Obama’s program received generally favorable reviews from economists.





“Is it worth doing?” wrote Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight. ”Yes, it is a bolder‐​than‐​expected attempt to inject fiscal stimulus to support an ailing recovery.”

–Washington Post, September 10, 2011





Here’s another view of the Obama proposal. Here’s a critique of these forecasts. And here’s a graph reminding us what happened after President Obama predicted that his first stimulus would actually stimulate the economy.