A Times news article headlined "emphasis on Deficit Reduction Is Seen By Economists as Impeding Recovery" begins:
The nation's unemployment rate would probably be nearly a point lower, roughly 6.5 percent, and economic growth almost two points higher this year if Washington had not cut spending and raised taxes as it has since 2011, according to private-sector and government economists.
This is absurd. These economists have no way of knowing what would happen. The last time around, they famously predicted a lower unemployment rate than what actually happened after the stimulus. And the Times lumps together the spending cuts and the tax increases as if they have the same effect.
The article goes on to paraphrase one "senior principal economist" who "noted that the economy was much stronger than Europe's largely because the United States initially opted for stimulus measures and allowed deficits to increase when the recession and financial crisis hit five years ago. European governments pursued austerity policies to cut their debts, further stalling economic activity and in turn inflating deficits."
That, too, is absurd. Different European countries are in different shape. The unemployment rates in Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands are all lower than the rate is now in the United States. And, contrary to the claim that the European governments went for austerity rather than stimulus, the OECD reports that over 2008 to 2010 Germany conducted a stimulus equal to three percent of 2008 GDP; Spain, three and a half percent. These are smaller packages than America's 5.6 percent, but their initial response was stimulus, not "austerity."