President Barack Obama’s presidency hangs in the balance after another disappointing employment report. He continues to advocate new government “stimulus” programs to boost his reelection campaign. However, Washington is awash in government “stimulus,” without effect. Only productive private investment will spark economic revival.
None of these efforts have spurred economic growth. In fact, unemployment soared, hitting ten percent. The jobless rate is still over eight percent despite administration promises that it would fall below six percent by last April.
If government could spend America to prosperity, good times would have arrived long ago.
Historical experience argues against government’s ability to “stimulate” the economy. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president during the Great Depression. He spent wildly and the economy recovered a bit, only to sink again. In 1939 Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau complained that “After eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot!”
In fact, UCLA economists Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian blamed the New Deal for prolonging the Great Depression by seven years.
Yet President Obama won’t stop. Last year he proposed another “jobs” initiative, the $447 billion “American Jobs Act” grab-bag, which included subsidies for state and local governments. Literally millions of jobs, most of them in or for government, would be created, he claimed, by Washington borrowing more money America doesn’t have for government projects America can’t afford.
President Barack Obama would prefer to talk about anything other than the economy. However, he ran on the economy in 2008. He can’t run away from it in 2012. The best way to stimulate the economy would be to shrink government, reduce outlays and debt, lower marginal tax rates, and streamline regulations. This economic “stimulus” program really would stimulate.
Read the rest....http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougban...killing-the-economy-with-government-stimulus/
None of these efforts have spurred economic growth. In fact, unemployment soared, hitting ten percent. The jobless rate is still over eight percent despite administration promises that it would fall below six percent by last April.
If government could spend America to prosperity, good times would have arrived long ago.
Historical experience argues against government’s ability to “stimulate” the economy. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president during the Great Depression. He spent wildly and the economy recovered a bit, only to sink again. In 1939 Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau complained that “After eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot!”
In fact, UCLA economists Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian blamed the New Deal for prolonging the Great Depression by seven years.
Yet President Obama won’t stop. Last year he proposed another “jobs” initiative, the $447 billion “American Jobs Act” grab-bag, which included subsidies for state and local governments. Literally millions of jobs, most of them in or for government, would be created, he claimed, by Washington borrowing more money America doesn’t have for government projects America can’t afford.
President Barack Obama would prefer to talk about anything other than the economy. However, he ran on the economy in 2008. He can’t run away from it in 2012. The best way to stimulate the economy would be to shrink government, reduce outlays and debt, lower marginal tax rates, and streamline regulations. This economic “stimulus” program really would stimulate.
Read the rest....http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougban...killing-the-economy-with-government-stimulus/