Tom Toles for February 03, 2013

Excuse me? What is wrong with government spending? Roads, bridges, research, education, medical care, enforcement, justice, military defense. Every dollar the government spends is spent in the economy. Further, government is not motivated in its spending by profit. Unlike business and corporations, it is not tempted to constrain its spending to juice its bottom line. The government spends to build things of value— justice, educated citizens, safe workplaces, infrastructure—whose payoffs are certain but whose dividends are largely discounted or accepted as a given by those who wring their hands with worries about “debt”. Yes, the government also uses debt instruments to facilitate corporate and international finance and to manage the amount of money in private circulation, but this is not a measure of the government’s worthiness or even a failing. The measure of its worthiness is the value of its spending in making us a strong Nation. Other nations look at the United States with envy, and snap up the opportunity to protect the dollars they have in their treasuries by investing it in U.S. debt.

Find a real problem to worry about. Hey, I know one! Too many Americans are out of work, or homeless, suffering with inadequate health care. Let’s spend to help them. Christ knows, the private sector isn’t. Much of the money they have laying around is currently being sheltered in government debt.