As February Marks Record Monthly Deficit, Lib Group Calls for $312B Stimulus

As news of the record-breaking $223 billion deficit makes economic waves (which Drudge notes is larger than the entire 2007 deficit), a liberal think tank is calling on the federal government to devote $382 billion to a "politically popular" stimulus plan to lower unemployment.

According to The Hill:

The call from the liberal Demos group comes as the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans argue over how greatly to cut this year's spending. House Republicans have proposed a total of $61 billion in cuts this year, while the White House has agreed to a total of $10.5 billion in cuts.

Officials with Demos told reporters on a conference call that their new stimulus plan would create 8.2 million government jobs over two years while lowering unemployment from 8.9 percent to 4.5 percent.

They also said it would be politically popular.

“Poll after poll indicates the American people want job creation over other national goals, including deficit reduction,” Demos Vice President Tamara Draut told reporters.

According to the group's research, $46.4 billion would be needed to create one million state, local and federal jobs. Increased tax receipts and decreased benefits such as for unemployment insurance reduces the net cost of the jobs to $28.6 billion, the group argues.

The group does acknowledge that the plan has no chance of passage, according to The Hill.

Click here to read the Demos release, and here is their proposal:

Did we mention that this marks the 29th straight month the government has run in the red.

Oh, and that that is nearly four times as large as the spending cuts House Republicans have passed in their spending bill, and is more than 30 times the size of Senate Democrats’ opening bid of $6 billion.