Democrats Promised Their $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Would Create 4 Million Jobs. We Ended Up With Fewer Jobs Than If We Spent Nothing At All

These are the results of roughly $13,250 spent per federal taxpayer.

When President Biden and his Democratic allies passed their $1.9+ trillion “American Rescue Plan” in March 2021, they promised it would create millions of jobs. Roughly nine months later, we now have fewer jobs than if we didn’t pass the “stimulus” legislation at all.

At least, that’s the conclusion reached by a new analysis from the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Senior Fellow Matt Weidinger ran the numbers and checked in to see how the Biden administration’s promises have aged. The White House projected that with their massive spending legislation, the economy would add 10.25 million jobs in 2021. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that without the plan, the economy would create 6.25 million jobs—a number Biden called “dismal.”  

The reality? 

Per AEI, the economy only created 6.1 million jobs in 2021… even less than was projected without the stimulus spending. So, not only did the 4 million jobs promised by President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and his many progressive allies fail to materialize. The Democrats spent $1.9 trillion in taxpayer money—roughly $13,250 per federal taxpayer—and ended up with even fewer jobs overall than was expected if we spent nothing. 

Yes, you read that right. 

How could “stimulus” legislation lead to worse economic outcomes? It’s actually pretty simple. For one thing, the $1.9 trillion bill was full of unrelated spending and partisan agenda items. 

But more crucially, the federal government cannot create resources out of thin air. In order to invest resources in “stimulus” it must, directly or indirectly, take those resources from somewhere else in the economy. There’s no guarantee the government will better allocate them than the American people would have. So, it’s not like stimulus spending grows the economy if it’s just somewhat helpful to some people. The government’s investments must be more economically valuable overall than the products of whatever private investment would have occurred in its absence—a rarity, since politicians hand out money based on politics, not market signals. 

Now, of course, the White House is trying to spin the economic recovery as strong and crediting their stimulus. Biden claimed in a recent speech that “We’re entering 2022 in a position of a unique economic strength… six million new jobs, a record number for a new president, have been created since January last.”

But back in March 2021, the White House dubbed the same levels of job growth “dismal” and used it as a disaster scenario that we must pass the American Rescue Plan to avoid. You can decide for yourself which time they were telling the truth.  

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Brad Polumbo
Brad Polumbo
Brad Polumbo is a libertarian-conservative journalist and co-founder of Based Politics. His work has been cited by top lawmakers such as Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Pat Toomey, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Congressman Thomas Massie, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, as well as by prominent media personalities such as Jordan Peterson, Sean Hannity, Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, and Mark Levin. Brad has also testified before the US Senate, appeared on Fox News and Fox Business, and written for publications such as USA Today, National Review, Newsweek, and the Daily Beast. He hosts the Breaking Boundaries podcast and has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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