Summers to Boehner: Stimulus Is Working

There is some rumbling among the congressional Republican ranks that Team Obama’s stimulus package has driven the country into ever deeper economic trouble, but one prominent member of said presidential team, economic adviser Lawrence Summers, begs to differ — and he’s written a letter to House GOP honcho John Boehner to tell him why. –KA

The Wall Street Journal:

“Thanks largely to the Recovery Act, alongside an aggressive financial stabilization plan and a program to keep responsible homeowners in their homes, we have walked a substantial distance back from the economic abyss and are on the path toward economic recovery,” Summers said in a letter to House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

House Republicans wrote President Barack Obama last week asking him to consider a host of tax breaks and other measures aimed at small businesses. The letter, which called the stimulus package “unsuccessful,” detailed GOP proposals to give small businesses a tax deduction equal to 20% of their income, lower individual tax rates, expand health-savings accounts and allow businesses to band together to purchase healthcare.

In a lengthy response, Summers didn’t discuss any of the Republicans’ specific proposals but said he would “continue to review the ideas you have suggested.” He offered a recent history of the U.S. job market and fiscal situation, contrasting the job creation and surpluses of the 1990s to the “anemic” expansion and rising deficits that occurred during the Bush administration.

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