As you may have read, last Thursday Warren Buffet floated the idea of a new round of stimulus. ABC:
"I think that a second one may well be called for," Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told "Good Morning America" today. But, he added, "you hope it doesn't get watered down in many ways."
Buffett cautioned that a second stimulus package, like the first, won't be "a panacea," because stimulus packages take time to work. He criticized lawmakers' work on the first stimulus package, which contained $787 billion in spending.
"Our first stimulus bill ... was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in ... as if everybody was putting in enough for their own constituents," he said. "It doesn't have really quite the wallup that might have been anticipated there."
Notice that while Buffett thinks we may need more stimulus, he is also somewhat critical of the first round. Putting aside the question of whether his criticism is warranted or not, it should be a reminder that the Republican narrative about stimulus criticism is just one part of the story -- and a relatively small one.
The GOP would have us believe that everybody who isn't totally satisfied with the first stimulus thinks that its fundamental flaw was overspending, and that the only way to fix our economy is by "tightening the belt."
But as we see from voices like Buffett -- who is about as middle of the road as you can get -- to Paul Krugman, there's a broad group of people who were generally supportive of the first stimulus, but also don't think it was enough.
These folks -- who form a spectrum ranging from center to left -- recognize that our economy is in such a deep ditch that the government is going to have to continue playing a role in digging us out.
There's been a lot of debate over whether or not a second round of stimulus could pass, but the framing of that debate has so far benefited the Republican do-nothing position.
Now, however, as people like Buffett join Paul Krugman make their voices heard, that framing and narrative will change, because it will become increasingly obvious that to the extent there is dissatisfaction with the original stimulus, it is increasingly coming from people who don't feel there was enough of it.