It’s possible to conclude from recent public opinion surveys that the Republicans are scoring points with their attacks on President Obama and congressional Democrats for failing to fix the economy already.

No one should blame the GOP for its tactics. From the minute that Democrats in Congress used their superior numbers to pass the $787 billion economic stimulus package in February, Republicans have been hammering away that it was a wasteful, misdirected mess. They had no choice. Only three GOP lawmakers voted for the measure — it was against their ideological principles to use government spending to give the economy a boost, and it was against their political principles to assist the Democrats.

It was in the minority’s interest to set up Obama and the majority for a fall. And the Democrats, naturally, have played right into the Republican’s hands.

If anything, the two parties are equally at fault for whipsawing the public. What we’re seeing is a clear case of the disingenuous nature of modern American politics. None can dare speak the truth for fear that their words will be used against them.

That’s why we have Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos with a straight face a week ago that “we and everyone else misread the economy.”

And we have House Minority Leader John A. Boehner last week jabbing at Biden, who was at that moment in Boehner’s home state of Ohio parrying the GOP’s thrust. “The administration promised the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, and they promised the stimulus would create jobs immediately,” Boehner crowed. “It’s pretty clear now that the administration was wrong.”

Well, no, at least not in the way Boehner means it. Biden is wrong to say that everyone misread the economy, although he’s just scrambling to regain the high ground. In January, the evidence of how deep the recession would get was much less clear than it is today. The White House, the Federal Reserve, the Congressional Budget Office and the consensus private forecast from Blue Chip Economic Indicators all were more optimistic at the beginning of the year than they are today, particularly about the jobless rate.

But the fact that few economists were predicting outright that unemployment would threaten to reach 10 percent by the end of this year doesn’t mean they weren’t fearful of that prospect. Boehner is just selectively amplifying the overstated hopes for an immediate boost from the tax cuts and spending increases from the stimulus law. The administration never really promised it would turn things around overnight — although it’s possible to see how official comments left that impression. And the stimulus hasn’t failed, at least not yet.

Most economists (maybe with the exception of Paul Krugman) think that the stimulative effects of fiscal policy are naturally slow to be realized, and it’s premature to declare defeat. Moreover, the administration never intended to dump the full $787 billion into the economy at once, choosing to spread out the benefits because of the potential for job losses to stretch well into 2010 — and plausibly because it’s an election year. So, Biden was right when he chided critics for expecting too much because the stimulus money had been available for only about four months.

Feeling the Squeeze

Still, it’s amusing that Boehner and the Republicans have been able to pinch the Democrats between concerns that the stimulus isn’t working because it was the wrong thing to do and fears that it isn’t working because it was too puny.

That pushed House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland to flail around last week and talk about the possibility for yet another stimulus bill. What was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to do other than to walk her party back from that ledge? “I’m committed to the first stimulus, and to giving it time to work,” she said, refusing to promise an extra dose of spending or to give the public further reasons to think her party isn’t up to the challenge.