ABC News is reporting that, surprisingly, the snowstorm is hurting the economy. 

They begin by stating that many people think snow will help the economy:

In a town accustomed to starting new government programs to create jobs and spark economic activity, some Washington, D.C., area businesses are hailing the wintry mess of the past four days as a "shovel-ready" economic stimulus project in the making.

Which businesses are hailing this?  The snow-plowing ones?  How exactly was a big snowstorm supposed to help the economy?  This is Keynesian idiocy at its finest.  They believe that if you break a window, you help the economy because now the shopkeeper will have to buy a pane of glass.  What they don't realize is that that allocation of money to glass is a misallocation of funds that can better be spent elsewhere.  It creates false demand.  The suppliers of the shopkeeper pay when the window gets broken.  ABC News continues:

But experts say this month's storms, with their "historic'" proportions, are ultimately a net negative for taxpayers, who foot the bill for snow cleanup and the lost productivity of more than 230,000 idle federal employees.

They're right that this is a net negative for the economy.  They're wrong that it's because of unproductive federal workers.  Would that we kept all our federal employees working at places like the IRS, the Department of the Treasury, etc. incapable of getting to their offices for months at a time.  That would be a stimulus package.  Taxpayers aren't upset that the bureaucrats can't get to work.  Taxpayers are upset that taxpayers can't get to work.

The fact is that ABC News doesn't see private employers as worthy of comment.  Private businesses are hurting because nobody can get out to the stores.  And private businesses, not the public sector, drive the economy.