Eat Yourself Thin, and Other Liberal Ideas

The Democrats, like a Florida election judge looking for an Al Gore vote, say they see signs of hope in the economy.  They are delusional.

The first delusion is that government can "create jobs."  Actually, it can, but government jobs do not spur economic growth.  If it were otherwise, all government would have to do is hire every last unemployed person and the problem would be solved.  Failed states like Illinois and California appear to have actually tried this strategy...

Democrats are just dying for another stimulus, this time it's "for the children," they tell us, when actually it's a $50 billion payoff to state governments and the teachers unions.  Can't they see that the taxpayer money they've blown so far has been wasted?

Uncertainty Kills Job Growth
We don't need more "stimulus." Government needs to remove the uncertainty that is causing employers to keep their money stashed away instead of using it to hire people:

Today investors and employers are certain that uncertainties are multiplying.

They are uncertain about when interest rates will rise, and by how much. They do not know how badly the economy will be burdened by the expiration, approximately 200 days from now, of the Bush tax cuts on high earners — aka investors and employers.

They know the costs of ObamaCare will be higher than was advertised, but not how much higher. They do not know the potential costs of cap-and-trade and other energy policies.

They do not know if "card check" — abolition of the right of secret ballot elections in unionization decisions — will pass, or how much the economy will be injured by making unions more muscular. (George Will)

Spending your way to prosperity is right up there with "Eat Yourself Thin" and "Smoke Your Way to Good Health"

The original sin—and it was nearly global—was to revive the Keynesian economic model that had last cracked up in the 1970s, while forgetting the lessons of the long prosperity from 1982 through 2007. The Reagan and Clinton-Gingrich booms were fostered by a policy environment for most of that era of lower taxes, spending restraint and sound money.(WSJ Keynesian Dead End)

Europe realizes this now.  Germany rejects further "stimulus" spending, Britain is crafting an austerity budget, and they've chopped up the credit cards Greece used to spend its way to financial ruin.

But the Obama White House blithely marches on.  Maybe they're hoping to bend the reality curve...