Innumeracy-R-Us in the Democrat Party

Ever notice how, with the Obama administration, the hits just keep on comin'?





Money quote starts at :48

The Obama administration seems to be the new home of economic illiteracy (innumeracy). Remember last December, when Nancy Pelosi (who told us in 2007 that the price of gas was way too high at $2.25 a gallon and she and a Democrat Congress were going to "do something about it"), told us of the economic benefits of unemployment?

"Economists tell us that unemployment insurance returns $2 to the economy for every $1 spent."

-Nancy Pelosi



At that time, I said:

So, for the moment, let's say that the Speaker has her facts straight: Every dollar spent on unemployment insurance returns two dollars to the economy. Would not the reverse be true as well:

For every dollar taken from someone in taxes, two dollars is removed from the economy?



At best, that would be a wash. Factor in that the government is so inefficient in nearly everything it does, the overhead to get that dollar where it is going may siphon off 70 to 80% in bloated government overhead, and you've got a losing proposition.

So, here is Obama's Agriculture Secretary parroting the same economic nonsense. A dollar of food stamps received, for starters, takes more than a dollar to deliver the benefit to the recipient. A lot gets siphoned of in the bureaucracy. But, setting aside for the moment the waste and inefficiency inherent in most government endeavors, the same holds true for food stamps as for unemployment. Before that dollar of food stamps can "generate" (stop laughing!) the mythical $1.84, it must first take a dollar out of the economy, through taxes, which, if left alone, would presumably "generate" the identical amount of economic activity. More, actually, since the overhead is less. The only "economic activity" generated is for the salaries of government bureaucrat, office space to house them, and all the expenses in staffing, heating, cooling and furnishing government offices.



Of course this is an administration that believes we can spend our way out of debt by "spreading the wealth". Tom and Nancy fit right in.



Cross posted at LCR.