Fox News' Megyn Kelly Ignores Economists On Stimulus Spending

Fox News host Megyn Kelly used a he-said-she-said partisan frame to characterize a discussion about increases in non-defense discretionary spending before President Obama's State of the Union address. But the majority of economists agree that previous stimulus programs have successfully aided job creation.                       

Kelly touted a Fox News poll on the popularity of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as well as future stimulus spending. According to the  poll, the public perception is that the stimulus did not work. And although Kelly noted that Democrats like President Obama and Nancy Pelosi have argued that federal stimulus spending was responsible for the creation of three million jobs, she failed to point out that this isn't just the opinion of political partisans -- it's the opinion of most economists. A 2010 Wall Street Journal poll of economists showed that 70% of economists agreed that the stimulus was good for the U.S. economy.

According to a May 2012 Congressional Budget Office report, the stimulus created the equivalent of between 900,000 and 4.7 million jobs in 2010 and between 600,000 and 3.6 million jobs in 2011. A February 2013 report from the Center on Budget and Policy also stated that the recession would have been worse without stimulus spending.

Misleading contributions from Kelly's guest, Fox Business Channel's Lou Dobbs, only highlighted the absence of expert analysis during the segment. Dobbs defied the prevailing opinion of economists by claiming that the 2009 stimulus bill, “hasn't worked.” He continued, “The jobs that are being created - there is no such thing as jobs being created and saved.”