Stop Fixing Our Economy!

The government cannot fix this economy. There is no magic program, no grand idea, no bailout that will make everything OK. The only thing government can do that will help, is nothing. If freedom built the American economy, why would less freedom help when it is in trouble? Considering government is the cause of the economic dilemma we are facing, why would anyone think the government can provide a solution? When I say government is the cause, I'm not just talking about Freddy and Fannie, I'm not just talking about CAFE standards for the auto industry, and I'm not just talking about oppressive taxation. I'm talking about the insane notion that anyone can spend themselves into prosperity.
Imagine you make $1000 per week and spend $1200 per week. Obviously, you cannot sustain that without eventually going bankrupt. So, you sit down one Sunday afternoon and decide to do something about your economic situation. You think and think and finally come up with a brilliant solution. You will go to the bank and borrow $10,000. With the extra money, you can sustain yourself for an additional 50 weeks. Fantastic! You can also hire someone to clean your home, and someone else to tend your garden. Problem solved, right?
You would have to be completely insane to think that would solve your problem. The best scenario is that you have merely put off the problem. The worst, and more likely, scenario is that you have compounded the problem and ensured your eventual bankruptcy.
That is what our government is currently doing. When the government spends money, it is only compounding the problem. It does not create anything, by its very nature it cannot create anything. What the government gets, it gets because you and I have created something. Every time the government does something to fix the problem, it does so with either our money or with borrowed money. When spending doesn't work, the politicians spend more. When that doesn't work, they spend even more. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. If you want a different outcome, you have to change your plan.
The American people are the solution to this problem. If Obama came out tomorrow and said he is going to change his plan and cut corporate and capital gains taxes, American business would respond immediately with new investments and the economy would begin to recover. The only real solution the government can offer is to get out of the way and let Americans do what Americans do.
Every time Capitalism is tried, it succeeds. When Reagan took over in 1981, interest rates were staggeringly high. Unemployment was also high and not surprisingly, so were taxes. When you want something to stop happening, tax it and it will stop. Prosperity was taxed and prosperity stopped happening. So Reagan cut taxes and so began the longest period of peacetime prosperity ever in American history.
The government desperately needs to stop doing things. It needs to get out of the way and let Americans do things. Government spending and regulation stifles growth; give us back our freedom and we will flourish.