In your opinion, how effective has the stimulus been so far?

[Marokai Backbeat]

Low end of moderately effective. I think you'd be surprised at the impact it truly did have. Not all of it was about jobs, as you're sort of mischaracterizing, alot of it had to do with strengthening the safety net as well. Food stamp money, unemployment benefits, medicaid spending, state financial aid, etc.

It was, of course, too small, and too comprised of tax cuts which even middle-of-the-road economists can tell you are mostly junk. But still, it had alot of good effects that generally go underreported.

Now, of course, our focus should be on direct employment programs. They're pretty cheap in comparison to handing money to private entities and hoping they create jobs, so there's very little reason to avoid doing so, except for political realities.