Tellingly, economists and Democratic policy experts were largely pleased with the deal. Forecasting firms on Tuesday upgraded their estimates for growth and job gains over the next two years. Economists at Goldman Sachs, who have been more negative and more accurate than most Wall Street forecasters lately, called the deal ?significantly more positive? than they had anticipated.
And left-leaning policy experts said the package did more to create jobs than they had thought possible after the Republicans? midterm election victories. Robert Greenstein, Lawrence Mishel and John Podesta? who run prominent Washington research groups that range from liberal to staunchly liberal ? all offered praise for the package. Of its estimated $900 billion-plus cost over two years, roughly $120 billion covers the high-end tax cuts and the estate tax cut, $450 billion covers Mr. Obama?s wish list and $360 billion covers the tax cut extensions both parties favored.
?People are kind of venting their disappointment and acting as if the administration did a terrible job in the negotiations,? said Mr. Greenstein, who runs the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. ?But it didn?t. The mistake the administration made ? and it was a serious one ? was that it should have dealt with this well before the election.?
