Stimulus saved or created more than 3 million jobs

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images — Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf testified on Capitol Hill June 6, 2012.

C.B.O.’s Take on the Stimulus 

By DAVID FIRESTONE, NYT

A certain ritual plays out whenever the director of the Congressional Budget Office testifies before a House or Senate committee. While partisans from each side try to score ideological points about spending or taxes, he has to remain studiously neutral, sticking to the numbers and inevitably frustrating his questioners.

On Wednesday, however, Douglas Elmendorf, the current director, annoyed Republicans on the House Budget Committee a little more than usual when they made several unsuccessful attempts to get him to say that President Obama’s stimulus program was a failure.

First, Bill Flores, Republican of Texas, asked him which was more effective at increasing economic activity, private- or public-sector spending. The congressman clearly wanted the answer to be private-sector, but Mr. Elmendorf wouldn’t help him, saying both would be equally effective. Mr. Flores pushed on anyway, asking why a second stimulus would be any more effective than the first one.

(More here.)