The 'Stimulus Jobs' Oxymoron

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tad DeHaven, Budget Analysttdehaven@cato.org:

The release of jobs figures from the president's "stimulus" effort is little more than political theater. Regardless of how many jobs the government claims to create, the economic facts are that the government cannot create anything without destroying something else in the process. An untold number of current and future jobs will disappear or never be created because of the wealth extracted from the economy to pay for the stimulus scheme.

Whether the burden to pay for the government’s interventions are borne by current taxpayers or assumed by future generations stuck with the consequent debt, the end result is a relatively lower standard of living. Yesterday, the president stated, "We're going to continue to explore each and every avenue that I can think of that will lead to job creation and economic growth." Here’s an idea: rescind the remaining “stimulus” money and begin the process of downsizing the federal government, which fostered this economic downturn to begin with.

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