James Pethokoukis is looking at the case Obama and the Democrats are making for a stimulus package and thinks that we’ve maybe seen this song and dance before.

Hollywood has nothing on Washington when it comes to shamelessly recycling stories and plot devices. Remember that big-budget turkey of the fall, “The Amazing Trillion-Dollar Bailout”? It was the story of how Uncle Sam persuaded American taxpayers (or at least Congress) that if they didn’t fork over nearly a trillion dollars to rescue Wall Street, the U.S. economy would tumble into a job-destroying, wealth-eviscerating free fall. (Director Hank Paulson has produced several sequels to that one already.)

But the inside-the-beltway crowd is already cooking up an obvious knockoff of that one. Coming soon in January 2009: “The Wondrous Trillion-Dollar Stimulus.” It’s the thrilling tale of how the new American president and Congress persuade American taxpayers that if Uncle Sam doesn’t borrow hundreds of billions of dollars for a massive spending spree, the U.S. economy will tumble into a job-destroying, wealth-eviscerating free fall. (I can already imagine the teaser trailer. Deep-Voice Narrator Guy: “In a world gone mad, where banks are imploding and automakers disintegrating, only One Man and his Wondrous Stimulus Plan can save America ...")

The idea that we can keep taxes high, increase government spending and thus rescue the economy is absolute folly.  All we’re going is sink this country further into the debt hole while expanding the size of the government taxpayers are having to support.

The only way our economy is going to turn around is if Americans have more money to spend.  And the only way they’re going to get more money to spend is if we free some of it from the government.