You know how the administration insists that we can’t just ignore the economic crisis? Yeah, well, the Congressional Budget Office says that doing nothing would do less damage to the economy. The Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Act of 2009 will harm the economy, the non-partisan government office said Wednesday.

President Obama’s economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.

Which may help explain why over 200 economists signed an open letter to President Obama opposing the spending bill (a.k.a. “stimulus” bill).