Democrat: Unemployment Insurance, Food Stamps Are “Most Stimulative” Things You Can Do For The Economy
So taking money from some people and giving it to other people in the form of government benefits is…stimulus?
(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that food stamps and unemployment insurance are the two “most stimulative” t things you can do for the economy.
During a pen and pad briefing with reporters on Capitol Hill, Hoyer was asked if any Democrats are “reconsidering the wisdom” of letting the Bush tax cuts expire at year’s end for the top income earners given the still struggling U.S. economy.
“I haven’t talked to any who are of that mind,” said Hoyer. “If you talk to economists, they will tell you there are two things that are the most stimulative that you can do — one’s unemployment insurance, the other’s food stamps, okay?”
“Why is that?” he said. “Because those folks who receive those resources must spend them. And they’ll spend them almost upon receipt. Most economists with whom I talk believe that those with significant discretionary income, that that’s not the case.”
Well sure, if you ignore the cost of these programs, they do look like stimulus. If you pretend as though money weren’t being taken away from some citizens, destroying the economic activity they would have engaged in with it, then I guess you can count food stamps and unemployment insurance as “stimulus.”
Which is absurd. By that thinking, the answer to our economic woes would be to put everyone on food stamps and welfare. According to Hoyer, our economy would explode. Except, I think most of us know that no such thing would happen.
The Democrats don’t like being called socialists, but let’s pause for a moment and reflect on what they’re actually telling us. They want to raise taxes, allowing the government to take more from some people, and then “stimulate” the economy with spending on social programs and government benefits. They want to seize wealth and redistribute it.
That’s, uh, socialism. And it doesn’t work. Punishing the prosperous hurts the economy. Lavishing benefits on the welfare class only gives them further encouragement to remain dependent on the government.
Tags: Asshats, Economy, food stamps, jobs, steny hoyer, Stimulus, unemployment benefits
