Romer concedes the latter portion of the stimulus does not seem to be very stimulating. She says "consumption fell slightly in the second quarter after rising slightly in the first quarter," which "could be a sign that households are initially using the tax cut mainly to increase their saving and pay off debt."

Is it plausible to suggest that $73 billion in stimulus spending over five months had a decisive impact on a $14 trillion economy? I say "decisive" because President Obama, back in February, presented the stimulus package as the only alternative to a never-ending recession, and last week he claimed, "We've rescued our economy from catastrophe."

Even if we accept the Obama administration's numbers, taxpayers do not seem to be getting much employment bang for their buck. Romer estimates that "employment is now about 485,000 jobs above what it otherwise would have been." That comes out to more than $200,000 per job, which seems pretty pricey, especially since many of these jobs are temporary.

Here is where the "reinvestment" part comes into play. Administration officials say the stimulus package is all about putting Americans back to work. When asked whether this is an efficient way to do that, they claim all the work needs to be done anyway. Conversely, when asked whether all the projects are really worth the money spent on them, they cite jobs "created or saved" as a backup justification. Stimulus means never having to admit you're wasting money.