Urgency and Action: Stimulus Edition

Per CNN:

Biden tells "Meet the Press" that "everyone guessed wrong" on the impact of the stimulus, economy was worse off than anyone thought.

Backs away from the estimate that the funds could create or save 3.5 million jobs, instead promises 600,000 by the end of the summer.

Maybe by 'everyone', he meant everyone in the Obama administration, and all the neo-Keynesian economists advising them. I do like that he admitted all the figures being being hurled upon Congress and the public were a 'guess.' A chart below from Innocent Bystanders shows exactly how wrong the administration guessed:

Fortunately for economists and politicians alike, the worthlessness of most economic models will make it easy for them to cover their tracks. Krugman and others will claim this as proof that we should have spent even more money, and faster, while the Obama administration can always hide behind "saving" jobs (150k so far and 600k in the next 3 months!) even as the unemployment rate and hours worked statistics continue to worsen. After all, imagine how much worse we would have been without government intervention?

Should there be any reason to second-guess the urgency, statistics, and promises currently being stressed by the administration on health care? Hmm...