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House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans regularly rail against "job-killing government spending." Think about that for a minute. The claim is that employment actually declines when federal spending rises. Using the same illogic, employment should soar if we made massive cuts in public spending—as some are advocating right now.
Acting on such a belief would imperil a still-shaky economy that is not generating nearly enough jobs. So let's ask: How, exactly, could more government spending "kill jobs"?
The generic conservative view that government is "too big" in some abstract sense leads to a strong predisposition against spending. OK. But the question remains: How can the government destroy jobs by either hiring people directly or buying things from private companies? For example, how is it that public purchases of computers destroy jobs but private purchases of computers create them?
How in the world could all that spending, accompanied by tax cuts, fail to raise employment? In fact, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the stimulus's effect on employment in 2010 was at least 1.3 million net new jobs, and perhaps as many as 3.3 million.
Deficit spending does help in a recession. It helped Reagan in the 80's. This recession has been enhanced by a financial crisis and a housing bubble that burst. All of the deficit spending that Obama has done has helped, but now it's time to start cutting down on the deficit. We need spending cuts, more tax revenue, and targeted policies to spur hiring and to create jobs.
In the Wall Street Journal, no less! Many of its readers believe government spending is always evil.
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