In this column Howard Rich argues that it is. Government spending doesn’t stimulate “the economy.” All it does is to stimulate the government’s consumption of scarce resources. Good for a few (like all the high-paid federal employees, including Michelle Obama’s retinue), but bad for the rest of us.
In 1921, the Harding administration cut federal spending, cut taxes, and unemployment rapidly declined. In 2009, the Obama administration has greatly increased federal spending, increased taxes, and we’ve seen unemployment shoot upward.
You might be a progressive if you believe that gargantuan federal spending increases stimulate economic activity simply because the guy in the White House wants it to.
