Mark Zandi: GOP Spending Plan Would Cost 700,000 Jobs
Had John McCain won the 2008 election, Mark Zandi would be in ne of the hot seats.
Lori Montgomery.
GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says: A Republican plan to sharply cut federal spending this year would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to an independent economic analysis set for release Monday. The report, by Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, offers fresh ammunition to Democrats seeking block the Republican plan, which would terminate dozens of programs and slash federal appropriations by $61 billion over the next seven months.
Zandi, an architect of the 2009 stimulus package who has advised both political parties, predicts that the GOP package would reduce economic growth by 0.5 percentage points this year, and by 0.2 percentage points in 2012, resulting in 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of next year.
His report comes on the heels of a similar analysis last week by the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which predicted that the Republican spending cuts would cause even greater damage to the economy, slowing growth by as much as 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of this year...
One question: in what sense was Mark Zandi an "architect of the 2009 stimulus plan"? I don't get that at all.
UPDATE: Queried, Lori Montgomery emails:
he was on the team of economists who were advising pelosi during that period, and his research helped shape the package. don't you remember all those photo ops?
Hmmm... By that standard, the Recovery Act had at least 200 "architects," including me...
FURTHER UPDATE: Mark Zandi emails David Weigel:
David Weigel:
Weigel: The Zandi Misfits: "I think the stimulus efforts were a success. They were designed to end the free fall in the economy, and they did that," Zandi told me in an e-mail. "Not sure how I became the chief architect."
