CBO Smacks Down Rep. Boehner's Talking Points

In his speech earlier today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) banged the drum for a return to Bush-era economic policies.  Specifically, Boehner demanded an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and called for "canceling" the unspent funds from the Recovery Act.  "All this 'stimulus' spending has gotten us nowhere," Boehner insisted. 

Of course, there was already an overabundance of data contradicting the Republican claim that the recovery bill "failed" to stimulate the economy.  And today, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had some more inconvenient news for Boehner & Co:

The oft-criticized stimulus plan boosted the economy in the second quarter by as much as 4.5%, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

In a report published the same day as Minority Leader John Boehner's criticism of President Obama's economic policy, the CBO said the stimulus law boosted the economy by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million.

The full CBO report is available HERE.