Prickly City by Scott Stantis for March 19, 2021

President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill may have helped avoid a second Great Depression, but it was a political fiasco.

As then-congressman Barney Frank liked to say: “Things Would’ve Sucked Even Worse Without Us” was an unappealing message for a Democratic bumper sticker.

Republicans relentlessly mocked the $800 billion stimulus as a wasteful porkfest, while Democrats tried fervently to change the subject.

Twelve years later, the politics of stimulus has flipped.

Democrats are relentlessly hyping President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, while Republicans are trying to change the subject to Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head and the Mexican border.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, arguably the shrewdest Republican strategist in Washington, has started floating a half-hearted anti-stimulus message that the coming recovery would have happened anyway.

“We are about to have a boom,” McConnell said last week after the Biden bill passed. “And if we do have a boom, it will have absolutely nothing to do with this $1.9 trillion.”

As a message, this amounts to “Things Would’ve Been Just As Great Without It”—an even less appealing bumper sticker than Barney Frank’s.

It may be an overstated political cliché that if you’re explaining, you’re losing.

But you’re almost certainly losing if you’re explaining, ahead of time, why the economic boom you’re expecting on your opponent’s watch shouldn’t be attributed to your opponent.

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“We’re going to see some fairly amazing economic numbers, and I imagine for the next few years, people will look around and say: ‘This is pretty darn good!’” says American Enterprise Institute fellow James Pethokoukis, a conservative economist who believes the Biden stimulus is somewhat excessive. “I’m sure Republicans will try to spin this, and I have long-term concerns myself, but ✁ ✁ ✁

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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/the-nightmare-politics-of-fighting-the-recovery-bill-476830