February 12, 2009 10:14AM 

# $800 Billion Is a Lot of (Other People’s) Money 

By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) 

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Even though [Keynesian theory does not make sense](https://www.cato.org/2008/12/15/are-we-all-keynesians-now/), President Obama [wants a so-called stimulus](https://www.cato.org/2009/01/26/obamas-so-called-stimulus-scheme-good-for-government-bad-for-the-economy/) that will increase the burden of government spending by about $800 billion (including the additional interest on government debt, more than $1 trillion). This is not pocket change. In this short video, Michelle Muccio of the Acton Institute explains how this amount of money would be enough to abolish the payroll tax for the rest of the year.

Why don’t politicians choose tax relief? As [John Kerry stated](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zISKoQegbxM), people can’t be trusted to spend their own money.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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