According to Dominick T. Armentano, professor emeritus in economics at the University of Hartford, the federal government cannot spend us out of our economic quagmire.
The experience in the 1930s is instructive. Even though federal government spending increased from $9.8 billion in 1934 to $14.2 billion in 1940, the unemployment rate in 1940 was still a staggering 14.6%. A 45% increase in New Deal spending in six years did not end the Depression.Mr. Armentano is not alone. More than 200 economists from a countless number of top-flight universities signed an open letter countering Obama's claims that big government spending will work.
More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s.This is not me speaking. This comes from a bevy of experts far more intelligent than I (heck, I have tennis shoes smarter than I am).
It is time to put aside grandiose plans of some newfangled New Deal and do what works. Cut taxes, cut regulations, cut government waste and abuse. Let the American people spend their money on what they deem essential and growth of business and the economy will quickly follow.
It worked in the 1960s, 80s, 90s, and the 2000s.
Massive government spending has never helped fix an ailing economy.
