When President Obama came up with the notion of throwing hundreds of
billions of dollars to the winds to "stimulate" the economy, we wondered
why not just send money back to the taxpayers from whence it came and
let them spend it?
It seemed to us that if you want to
simultaneously stimulate every sector of the economy, the quickest and
easiest way to do it would be to write a check to every taxpayer — even
to those who receive tax refunds on taxes they never pay. Some would
save the money, but most would pay down debt or buy stuff with it.
Either way, they would consume goods and services, thereby lifting all
boats.
How much would you have gotten if every penny spent on
stimulus then and since was sent back to the taxpayers? How about
$13,500 to every American over age 18. Now that would have been a
stimulus.
Instead, the government flushed hundreds of billions
down the proverbial toilet, and we are much the worse for it. According
to the Heritage Foundation, total stimulus spending, plus interest and
debt service, will cost Americans some $3.3 trillion.
That's just
about how much it takes to run the federal government for a year. Could
you take a year's salary and throw it away? How long would it take you
to recover from that? Likewise, American taxpayers will be many years
paying down this debt.
What got stimulated? Relatively speaking, not much.
For
instance, the Agriculture Department got about $28 billion to stimulate
agriculture. Of that, $5 billion was used for "questionable or
unsupported costs," says the department's inspector general. In other
words, it was wasted.
The Rural Development Agency distributed
$208 million to some 1,772 home loan borrowers with "no history of
stable and dependable income" and who "did not meet repayment ability
guidelines." The Forest Service dispensed $92 million in "questionable"
purposes.
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