Amazingly, most economists agree that Congress and the Obama administration should continue to support our nascent economic recovery by continuing to adopt expansionary fiscal policies.
The real question is whether enough members of Congress have the backbones needed to stand up to the fiscal hawks who would like to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression.
We are now three weeks into expired unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed courtesy of Congressional inaction. This is exactly the wrong policy. Putting money in the hands of the unemployed is one of the best economic recovery policies we have. The evidence is clear. We also need to stop states from cutting spending right now amid record-high unemployment numbers and offer more aid to the states.