To the editor:
After nearly two full terms as Secretary of the Treasury to FDR in the Great Depression, Henry Morgenthau admitted: “We have tried spending money; we are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … After eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot!”
Obama’s new New Deal will not work any better than the old one did. Every dollar lawmakers pump into the economy must first be taxed or borrowed — and so pumped out of the economy. Moving money from one pocket to another does not stimulate anything. Any borrowed money not spent specifically on capital improvements will have no effect on future prosperity other than inflation. And only 8 percent of this spending occurs in budget year 2009, and only 41 percent occurs in first two years. The time to stimulate the economy is when it is on its back, not years down the road.
Senator Collins is right when she says we should start over from scratch on this bill. This is not a stimulus bill. It is a Generational Theft Act.
Guilford
