Would the recession have been worse without the stimulus bill?

The Obama administration and the Left have repeatedly claimed that their trillion dollar stimulus spending has prevented the recession from being worse than it would have been without it.

The simple fact is, there is absolutely no evidence to support this claim, and all historical evidence would suggest the opposite.

1)  The Left points to the fact that the recession was worse in the beginning than it is now as evidence that their stimulus efforts have worked.

2)  The truth is that all recessions, even when you do nothing at all, have a cycle to them. The market tends to recover through its own feedback mechanisms, and the history of recessions is that on average, this recession and the great depression have been the slowest recoveries in all the history of recessions.

3)  History suggests that when you do nothing at all, most recessions begin to recover in twelve to eighteen months. For all Obama's claims that the recession would have been worse had we not passed his stimulus bill, history suggests to the contrary that we are either about on track or recovering more slowly than would be expected with no stimulus spending.

3)  The two longest recessions in history have both been examples where the Government took up the Keynesian mantle of being "The Spender of Last Resort." The Great Depression lasted for more than a decade, and the most optimistic estimates now suggest that this recession will last at least four or five years more before unemployment has recovered. Some now fear a second dip as happened in the 1930s, which could foretell a similar length to the great depression.

4)  Some of the shortest recoveries for severe recessions have occurred when the government did exactly the opposite of Keynesian government spending. In the 1920s and 1980s the government made sharp cutbacks in the size and scope of government, and government regulation, getting out of the way of the market to let it work more efficiently. Measured for initial severity, ultimate duration, and strength of recovery, these recessions represent two of the most successful recession recoveries in history.

There is NO evidence that Keynesian stimulus spending works, and very strong evidence that it makes matters worse.