Stimulus won't benefit economy

By Peter Kirst

The $787 billion stimulus package bill that was recently approved by Congress will provide $500 million for jobless benefits, renewable energy, highway construction, food stamps, college tuition grants, high-speed rail projects and other programs.

However, this package will not improve our economy. This bill is a double-down Blackjack scheme and if we bust, the U.S. will be worse off than it was in the Great Depression.

Americans are not seeing this stimulus package in complete detail. No one is. Despite President Barack Obama's promise to "ban all earmarks," this stimulus package represents billions of dollars of special-interest spending, tax breaks, giveaways and protections that will do nothing to jump-start our economy. The stimulus bill itself is approximately 1,000 pages long and was published on Feb. 12. Republicans and Democrats in Congress were given approximately 24 hours to read it in its entirely. We can't be certain that a single Democratic or Republican member read the entire document.

The plan is a disaster that will expand the size of government and provide insufficient jobs. Good permanent jobs are created in the private sector, but these jobs will be replaced with less efficient ones from the government sector. Obama is forcing consumer spending by injecting credit into an economy that is already credit excessive by promoting credit over savings.

Economist Peter Schiff recently wrote in a Financial Sense editorial, "When consumers borrow and spend, society gains nothing, but when producers borrow and invest, our capital stock is improved, and we all benefit from the increased productivity."

Perhaps the biggest problem is that no one is talking about how this bill, centered on credit and spending rather than saving and reductions, will be re-paid. Consider where the money is coming from. The government will get the money for this stimulus package by taxing, borrowing and printing it.

Those of us under 30 will be paying this debt and, in our lifetimes, we will never fully pay it off. It will be a huge burden on the American people, using taxpayer funds as collateral until no money exists. U.S. trend forecaster Gerald Celente predicts the result of this will be an economic collapse.

In response to our current economic condition, policy makers should be cutting spending, balancing our budget by eliminating unsuccessful programs and ending our massively expensive wars. We should be reducing debt, not increasing it.

Obama said, in a January 9 speech, "Only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the cycle that is crippling our economy."

Government spending is not the sole solution. Instead, the government should encourage saving by raising interest rates. Greater liquidity for businesses will lead to permanent jobs, increased production, increased efficiency and higher living standards.

The U.S. is in a recession due to years of reckless spending. Working, saving and investing is what improves productivity and leads to long-term growth.

Peter Kirst is a junior computer science major.