Growth Won’t Come From More Government Spending

Here’s a letter I sent to The New York Times.

TO THE EDITOR:

You write (“Where Will Growth Come From?,” August 11, 2011) that proposed budget cuts in the U.S. and EU are “misguided,” and that less government spending will “prolong their economic stagnation.” Yet it is precisely government profligacy that caused their economic woes.

Keynesian stimulus has yet to succeed. Even President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors admitted that the 2009 stimulus was an $823 billion failure. How will cutting wasteful spending condemn the US and Europe to economic frustration if it didn’t have any positive effect to begin with?

With its debt-to-GDP ratio now above 100 percent, the US will soon become Greece if it does not begin reducing spending. America and Europe’s entitlement expenses are unsustainable. Realizing that will only speed economic recovery.

Matthew Melchiorre

Washington, Aug 11, 2011

The writer is an Adjunct Analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.