The $787 billion stimulus legislation failed. By Barack Obama’s own standards for success at the time of the legislation’s passage, it failed. The enormous spending package was supposed to keep unemployment below 8% — we’re now at 9.5% after touching double-digits earlier on. So it failed, as Keynesian policies tend to do.

What now for Democrats? Economist Russ Roberts covers the latest narrative: The legislation didn’t fail because of its misguided Keynesian basis, you see. It failed because the expenditure wasn’t large enough! Yes, if only Congress had approved another couple hundred billion, we’d have more jobs than workers by now!

Keep an eye out for this narrative. Especially if unemployment goes up in any of the reports coming before the November elections. You’re going to hear that our problems are caused by a failure to really try deficit spending. And the reason is going to be Rahm or the Republicans. Especially the Republicans. They demonized spending more than the paltry $787 billion because they were worried about the deficits and stupid voters listened to them. Watch for it.

Indeed. This “it was never really tried” excuse is nothing new for the left. Each time Communism has failed, we’ve been told that it wasn’t Communism itself that failed. No, it was the men who tried to implement the political system. Communism would have worked in the Soviet Union but Stalin didn’t do it right, that bastard. Or so we’re told.

There is one glimmer of light in all of this: Americans nowadays reject Keynesian policies by overwhelming margins. Just 11% of Americans want to increase the deficit in pursuit of an economic recovery. Nearly 60% think increasing the deficit harms the economy rather than helping it. And 56% think cutting the deficit will help with economic recovery.

So Democrats have their hands full in convincing deficit-dreary Americans who reject Keynesianism that the massive stimulus would have worked if only those pesky Republicans hadn’t blocked a multi-trillion dollar version.