President Obama’s recently submitted jobs bill is getting a thumbs-up from economists — who say that it would prevent a backslide into recession, Bloomberg News reports:
The legislation, submitted to Congress this month, would increase gross domestic product by 0.6 percent next year and add or keep 275,000 workers on payrolls, the median estimates in the survey of 34 economists showed. The program would also lower the jobless rate by 0.2 percentage point in 2012, economists said.
The report notes that the economists are not as optimistic as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who has cited estimates of a 1.5 percent boost in GDP. However, the economists do forecast some growth, and that the plan would prevent a double-dip recession compared to doing nothing:
“The important thing to consider is: What happens if we don’t do anything?” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. He said the program “very well could” forestall a recession in early 2012.
“Most of all, it prevents a serious drag on the economy next year” from current programs expiring, said Brown, who estimates the Obama plan would add 0.5 percent to GDP in 2012.
