GILLMAN JR. | History shows stimulus plan will fail

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When you read this, the finalized version of the stimulus bill will just be waiting for a signature from President Barack Obama.

There are many facets of the bill that could be attacked, whether it be the earmarks, tax cuts without appropriate spending cuts or something else.

However, there is one key issue that is being overlooked: the fact that history has shown government intervention in the economy, especially on this level, has proven to be a complete failure.

Back in 2004, University of California – Los Angeles economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian completed a paper describing how Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies were responsible for an additional seven years of the Great Depression.

They still maintain that viewpoint.

“The main lesson we have learned from the New Deal is that wholesale government intervention can – and does – deliver the most unintended of consequences.”

This quote was from a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Cole and Ohanian.

It’s relevant, too – just published Feb. 2.

I really hate using cliché phrases, but I think it’s unavoidable at this point: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. (My apologies to Santayana if I botched that up, but the sentiment is what I’m trying to get across.)

The sad thing is that the Democrats do not care about the realities of what this legislation is going to bring.

The Congressional Budget Office indicated that although there might be short-term benefit from the plan, the opposite would hold for the long run.

People arguing for or against the stimulus plan based on its details need to see the bigger picture here.

The past 70 years have shown that Keynesian economics do not work. The way the market operates certainly has not changed during that time, either.

Attempts to revitalize the economy using methods like this recent stimulus plan will fail.