Congressional Budget Office (CBO) states stimulus boosted GDP by 4.5% or maybe 1.7%

Another meaningless government report issued by the CBO with a range spread wide enough to parallel park an aircraft carrier. Boosted GDP between 1.7% to maybe, kinda, sorta 4.5% and added 1.4 to 3.3 million???

By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

Stimulus plan boosted GDP by as much as 4.5%, says CBO

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The oft-criticized stimulus plan boosted the economy in the second quarter by as much as 4.5%, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

In a report published the same day as Minority Leader John Boehner's criticism of President Obama's economic policy, the CBO said the stimulus law boosted the economy by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million.

In practice, that means the stimulus plan is the main reason the U.S. economy grew during the second quarter. The Commerce Department estimates the economy grew 2.4% in the second quarter, a figure most economists expect to be sharply revised lower in a report due Friday.

The CBO said the impact from the stimulus law on output and employment, however, will gradually diminish during the second half of 2010 and beyond.

The CBO also upwardly raised the cost of the stimulus plan to $814 billion from $787 billion