Economists Reject Obama's Stimulus Plan

The non-partisan scholar group Cato Institute has criticized Obama's latest 2009 stimulus plan. The group has been known to criticize President Bush's policies, President Obama's policies, and John McCain's policies.

The following document published by the Cato Institute expresses deep disagreement of Obama's declaration that more government is needed to solve today's problems. "In fact, many economists disagree," says the Cato Institute.

The document is signed by hundreds of economists and even Nobel laureates.

President Obama said on January 9th "There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy." The Cato Institute scholars and economists all over the country responded with:

"With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's "lost decade" in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policy makers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."

That's right--the Great Depression was stopped by major funding of businesses and restoration of confidence during World War II. I'm sure the draft helped make unemployment almost insignificant as well.

The New Deal was a failure--it was also meant to simply restore confidence. However, many parts of it led to more problems.