All politicians at the federal level are liars – and I say that with no qualifiers. Every one of them has promised at some time to stimulate the economy with government spending. It’s always their first instinct when faced with an employment shortage or a recession. Both parties have done it, and it has always been a scam. “Shovel Ready Projects” spent a lot of money, but failed to fix stagnant economic growth. COVID relief went right into the pockets of large corporations, not to the American workers it was supposed to help. And now, San Fran Nan and her crew are telling us that “Build Back Better” (BBB) will fix everything from inflation to toenail fungus. It will certainly be the most expensive boondoggle of all time – but count me as skeptical about it being a cure for anything.
All of these programs promised to stimulate the economy. All have failed (or will fail in the case of BBB). The notion that the government can spend its way to a better economy is a fundamentally flawed concept. And yet, every couple of years we have politicians telling us that it will work this time.
Economic activity is the result of people spending money. They spend it to buy products, or to hire employees. Those who receive the money then in turn spend it to buy more products or hire other employees. The cycle continues over and over. The economy grows when people spend more money on those products and services today than they did yesterday.
But any money given to us by the government, must first be taken from us. There are a limited number of ways for the government to get that money, and they all involve taking from us by some means.
- The government can tax us and take the money directly from us. We find taxation objectionable, but it’s actually the most honest means of government taking.
- The government can borrow the money. Of course, then the taxpayers are stuck with paying the interest – forever.
- The Fed can crank up the printing presses and the government can flood the country with new money. But that creates inflation and robs us all of us of purchasing power. It is the cruelest of the government’s methods of taking. Nobody escapes it, not even the poor.
- The government could sell property to generate revenue. It has access to oil reserves, timber reserves, and intellectual property from research. But any such property has already been paid for, by us, through one of the other methods of taking.
We could take property from other countries by force. But that would make us an imperial conqueror, which we have never been. Perhaps our federal government could sue other countries for reparations. China’s stunt of dropping the Wu-flu on the planet would certainly make it a prime candidate. But given the Biden family business – which has always been graft not politics – I don’t see that happening.
The bottom line is this: If the government has something, it got it from us. That’s why the claim that government spending can stimulate the economy is a total scam. It is impossible to stimulate the economy by taking money away from us, giving less of it back to us, and then acting as though it’s free money. There’s nothing free about it.
Our politicians always bill stimulus as a temporary measure. It never is. It always grows the size of government, and that bloat must be supported forever. As of 2020, the federal government has grown to almost 3 million employees. Have you ever heard of a reduction in workforce at the end of one of these “temporary” spending measures? Neither have I. In fact, our government has stimulated its way to about 30 trillion dollars of debt. That’s $90,000 of debt for each man, woman, and child in America. The average family of 4 is paying more interest on the federal debt (in their taxes) than they are for their home mortgage. Explain how giving them a little money back stimulates the economy more than letting them keep the money to start with.
Government spending does not stimulate the economy. It throttles it. The only thing that “stimulus spending” stimulates is government growth.
The next time a politician runs on a platform promising “stimulus,” don’t be fooled. Recognize it for what it is. He is offering to pick your pocket, give you the loose change back, and suggesting that you should be grateful for it.
Author Bio: John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He currently writes at the American Free News Network and The Blue State Conservative. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
Follow AFNN
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAz…
Twitter: @AFNNUSA
GETTR: @AFNN_USA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA
Patriot.Online: @AFNN
Right on, John. The whole system is rigged to fool us. They count “government spending” as production in “Gross Domestic Product”. But the government does not produce anything. In addition, the fraud is multiple counted. Consider a Federal spending grant to a State granted to a school district to buy some textbooks. That government spending is counted three times (Fed, State, and local) while the real economic activity has already been counted in the revenues of the company that sells the texts.
If only the government were held to the same accounting standards as the rest of us.
The day that the word “Stimulus” was taken out of scientific research, and put into the use by a politician, was the day the word “Stimulus” lost all meaning.
Government can’t stimulate anything, other than expense, and that is from the taxpayer. Stimulus sure doesn’t mean encouragement, like the way the pol wants you to believe, and it sure doesn’t stimulate anything positive, except inflation, which another word should be used, as if the pol wanted to talk about truths, and that is theft.