Congressional Budget Office Concludes That Obama’s “Stimulus” Would Actually Hurt The Economy
Oh, and the best thing for the government to do in the current economic melt down is to do nothing.
President Obama’s economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.
CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.
I don’t necessarily buy into the “do nothing” solution. There are things Congress and the President could do to help the economy. Lowering tax burdens so that individuals and businesses can keep more of their own money would help significantly. Lowering regulatory burdens would decrease the cost and difficulty of creating more jobs and prosperity. Even just simplifying the tax code would go a long way toward easing some of the heavy compliance costs many individuals and businesses struggle with.
So there are things our political leaders could do to help with the economic down turn. But given that our nation’s current liberal leadership isn’t likely to do these things, “do nothing” is probably the best we can hope for.
