Obama Economy: Conservative Economic Myths shown to be lies

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Radio host Thom Hartmann recently observed that conservatives tend to base their philosophy on works of fiction, rather than on data and hard evidence. He offered libertarian conservatives’ love of the works of Ayn Rand, particularly Atlas Shrugged, as an example of what he was talking about.

Right wingers believe all sorts of myths and stories, too many to cover in the scope of this article. Since many conservative myths of today are focused on the economy, and President Obama’s handling of it, we’ll take a look at those.

5. The Obama economic stimulus didn’t work.

As 2008 came to an end, things were looking a lot like 1929 to many. After taking office in January, 2009, President Obama and congressional Democrats pushed through an $832 billion stimulus package to try and get the economy back on track. Republicans immediately said that the stimulus wouldn’t work. House Speaker John Boehner was still claiming that the stimulus was a failure, in February 2014, five years after its passage.

The stimulus was probably the first major success of the Obama presidency. And, had the administration listened to some economists, such as Paul Krugman, and gone for a bigger package, the stimulus might have been an even bigger success.

The New York Times editorial board outlined some of the successes of the stimulus, in a February, 2014 commentary:

• It prevented a second recession.
• It created or saved an average of 1.6 million jobs over four years.
• It raised American economic output by between two and three percent between 2009 and 2011.
• It prevented a huge number of people from slipping into poverty.

4. The budget deficit has exploded under Obama.

The federal budget deficit ballooned as the recession kicked in, jumping to a massive $1.55 trillion (adjusted for inflation) in 2009. “Yes,” conservatives will say, “Obama created a massive budget deficit.” But the 2009 budget deficit largely belonged to George W. Bush, as pointed out by Daniel Mitchell, from the libertarian CATO Institute.

As the recession has wound down, and things returned to pre-recession levels, so too has the budget deficit diminished. The Wall Street Journal reports that the 2014 deficit, as a share of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is below the average of the last 40 years. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the 2014 deficit is lower than the last pre-recession Bush deficit, from 2008. The projected 2015 deficit is even lower.