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Monday, April 23, 2012

You Get What You Pay For

So the 2009 stimulus act was an example of how big government can correct the excesses of capitalism by spending money to smooth the downturn. It was a great new era of competent big government:

We are in the year four of our lord, when darkness was made light, the seas gently receded, and the planet cooled. In the space of 24 hours in January 2009 the world was turned upside down: ...

But big government just spent the money on their supporters who didn't need smoothing as much as they needed stroking (Tip to Instapundit):

Grover Norquist and John Lott, Jr. uncover a startling fact: heavily Democratic states with lower poverty rates, lower unemployment rates, lower bankruptcy rates, and lower foreclosure rates received most of President Barack Obama's $825 billion Stimulus.

Huh. It was just a pay off to loyal constituencies in Democratic wish-list bills, as many noted at the time.

The federal government is too big and does too much.