President Obama’s machinations have fared no better. His first act – a massive stimulus package, complete with “shovel ready” infrastructure projects – was supposed to jolt the economy and get people back to work.
Instead, unemployment continued to shoot up and Americans were left with the $830 billion tab. The stimulus failed because government can’t create purchasing power out of thin air. It must first tax it or borrow it out of the private economy, leaving that much less for the private sector to spend.
Compounding the stimulus debacle was a massive regulatory initiative that crimped business activity. In the last three years, 106 major new regulations have saddled the private sector with additional annual costs estimated to run $46 billion per year, according to research by the Heritage Foundation.
Like excessive taxation, regulatory excesses harm the economy. They hamstring investment and innovation and siphon off valuable resources that could be used to create jobs or improve wages.
Lawmakers must change course, reversing the harm inflicted by these big-government policies. Here’s how:
