March 18, 2021 8:18AM # Fact Check: Yes, There Are Economists against Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Plan By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE Back in 2009 President Obama famously [proclaimed](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2009/jan/30/barack-obama/some-economists-disagree-obama/), “There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy.” And Vice President Biden [chimed in](http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/01/is-joe-biden-disingenuous-or.html): “Every economist, as I’ve said, from conservative to liberal, acknowledges that direct government spending on a direct program now is the best way to infuse economic growth and create jobs.” And the Cato Institute famously [pointed out](https://www.cato.org/blog/economists-against-stimulus?queryID=f19dcb6b9563af64b25a3c1ac4560d99) that those claims were false. Now, as president, Joe Biden [is at it again](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/15/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-implementation-of-the-american-rescue-plan/): “The American Rescue Plan … will generate economic growth for the entire nation. That’s why major economists — left, right, and center — support this plan,” he said Monday at the White House. And also last [Friday](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/12/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-american-rescue-plan-2/): “Every single major economist out there — left, right, and center — supported this plan.” Obviously, he loves this claim. And [once again](https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/cato_stimulus.pdf), with all due respect, Mr. President, that is not true. It’s easier to claim this time that there’s [widespread](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-relief-republican-senators-618-billion-counteroffer/) support for the actual Covid‐​related measures in the bill regarding testing, vaccination, and relief. But the $1.9 trillion [wish-list of unrelated expansions of government](https://www.cato.org/blog/how-bidens-covid-relief-bill-patriot-act?queryID=d5a9105fe8c1e6ff66b94168db2d4ead), on top of [another $4.1 trillion](https://www.cato.org/commentary/were-paying-19-trillion-what) in the past year? There are plenty of economists opposed to that. Start with Lawrence H. Summers, winner of the John Bates Clark Medal and former chief economist of the World Bank, Treasury Secretary for President Clinton, and director of President Obama’s National Economic Council. He wrote in the [Washington Post ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/larry-summers-biden-covid-stimulus/)that the total size of the package “is at least three times the size of the output shortfall” and thus six times the relative size of Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill. He warned that the massive injection of borrowed money into the economy might well spur inflation and would surely crowd out further Democratic wish‐​list programs. And then we find major economists from left, right, and center also opposing the plan as proposed and passed. Like [Greg](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/business/biden-stimulus-overheat-economy.html) [Mankiw](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/06/biden-stimulus-poverty-checks/), chief economic adviser to President George W. Bush. And [Olivier Blanchard](https://twitter.com/ojblanchard1/status/1358122330329927680), former chief economist of the IMF. [Michael Strain](https://www.aei.org/economics/is-president-bidens-1-9-trillion-rescue-plan-the-right-approach-my-long-read-qa-with-michael-strain/) of the American Enterprise Institute. [David Henderson](https://www.hoover.org/research/unnecessary-stimulus) and [John Cochrane](https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-wages-of-stimulus.html) of the Hoover Institution. Constance Hunter, chief economist at KPMG, [and the vast majority](https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/03/04/stimulus-vaccines-checks-spending-unemployment-biden/) of business economists. [Tyler Cowen](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-02-08/biden-s-huge-covid-relief-plan-could-hurt-progressive-priorities) of George Mason University. Nobel laureate [Eugene Fama](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3790543). Even [Jason Furman](https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1359956553994883072), former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, while saying he would support the plan on a “yes or no” vote, warned that it risked triggering inflation and should be better designed. The point of this post is not to lay out a critique of the bill, but my colleague Scott Lincicome [published](https://www.cato.org/commentary/were-paying-19-trillion-what) a pretty comprehensive one. My point here is just that President Biden should not make false claims. And it is false today, as it was in 2009, to claim that “every single major economist” supported this $1.9 trillion debt-financed, heavy-regulation plan. ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).