Ryan In 2002: Stimulus Spending Would Be Good For The Economy: “Spend A Little To Grow A Little”

Stimulus spending is only bad when President Obama does it.

In 2002, Republican President George W. Bush proposed a similar — if less ambitious — stimulus plan to the one President Obama signed in 2009. Like Obama, Bush sought to goose the economy through an influx of public sector cash. His stimulus plan included an extension of unemployment benefits and a plan to mail checks directly to millions of Americans. Ryan took to the House floor to defend this plan, accurately noting that additional government spending would help move the economy out of a recession.

It’s good when President Bush does it:

The things we’re trying to pass in this bill are the time-tested, proven, bipartisan solutions to get businesses to stop laying off people, to hire people back, and to help those people who have lost their jobs. . . .

We’ve got to get the engine of economic growth growing again because we now know, because of recession, we don’t have the revenues that we wanted to, we don’t have the revenues we need, to fix Medicare, to fix Social Security, to fix these issues. We’ve got to get Americans back to work. Then the surpluses come back, then the jobs come back. That is the constructive answer we’re trying to accomplish here on, yes, a bipartisan basis.

Also in 2002, Ryan explained how spending helps grow the economy.

“You have to spend a little to grow a little,” Ryan said. “What we’re trying to do is stimulate that part of the economy that’s on its back.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.