From The Architect's Wall Street Journal column today:
The Democratic stimulus will slow recovery, but not stop it. Recessions don't last forever and, if history is a guide, sometime late this year or early next the economy will rebound on its own. When that happens, Democrats will argue that their untargeted, permanent spending actually revived the economy.
I mean, where do you even start? We're on the verge of a deflationary spiral, and this guy's talking like it's a mild economic hiccup. Recessions don't last forever? Well, no. But depressions can last for a decade, which is bad enough. If you're going to look to history as a guide, then the relevant guide is the '30s and Japan in the '90s, I'm afraid. But I guess that would make Bush some combination of Coolidge and Hoover, so you can imagine the reluctance there...
And: The stimulus will slow recovery but not stop it? Really--slow it? As Leon would say, please disaggregate.
--Noam Scheiber