Forbes: The Federal Stimulus is Working

How long before the wingnuts get a hold of Steve Forbes and force his namesake (of which he is editor-in-chief) to print a retraction?

Forbes is as loyal a conservative Republican as you will find. This was Mr. Forbes a few weeks ago when he endorsed Doug Hoffman for Congress in NY:

Under the Democrat Congress and White House, we’ve seen runaway spending, more bail-outs and attempts to pass government run healthcare and union power grabs like Card Check. We’ve seen federal tax dollars used to promote abortion on demand and we’ve seen more of our freedoms put in jeopardy.

The full statement is the standard “Democrats=Satan” talk that could have come from the mouth of Beck or Palin.

Back to the Forbes magazine article; this analysis from Oxford Analytica (a group started by a former member of the Nixon administration) looks at the good and the bad from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and concludes:

Despite its flaws, the stimulus package has helped underpin recovery and prevented even more savage job losses than those that have occurred. However, this observation (based on counterfactual conjecture about how much worse conditions would have been without the plan) is unlikely to be politically salient for Obama if unemployment remains high ahead of the November 2010 mid-term elections.

And just for good measure:

The summer 2009 “cash-for-clunkers” program intended to encourage new car purchases–and appears to have succeeded.