Stimulating

I think I side with Brad DeLong in thinking that a fiscal stimulus plan doesn't sound like the hottest idea. On the other hand, I enthusiastically endorse the practice of using the alleged need for fiscal stimulus as a pretext for passing otherwise desirable measures. I've heard suggestions, for example, that we might provide people subsidies to do green retrofits of their homes. If you want to call that a "fiscal stimulus" to broaden the political coalition in support of it, more power to you.

The Bush administration, however, is likely to see things my way in terms of pretext but have a different notion of what "otherwise desirable measures" amounts to, so we'll have to see how the sausage gets made. Meanwhile, in terms of stimulus-qua-stimulus the reality is that the sausage-making process is usually too slow and too crude to seriously impact the business cycle.