It does not work

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. I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. … And an enormous debt to boot!

Henry Morgenthau, Jr. - FDR Treasury Secretary, testifying before Congress, May 1939

Imagine two scenarios:

• Today's awful economy but Obama loses his re-election bid
• A booming economy, > 7% growth and < 6% unemployment, but Obama gets re-elected.

Which would you choose?  I would choose the second, of course.

But the second scenario just will not happen.  Because the main causes prolonging this dismal grey economy are Obama's various policies -- big gov't spending chief among them. Sadly, I have no doubt that the second scenario could not possibly occur.

The sad thing is, we could right this ship tomorrow with little or no further gov't spending.  We would just have to repeal three bills: Sarbanes/Oxley, Dodd/Frank and Obamacare. Regulations in those bills are hampering job creation. All it would cost to repeal them and reinstate the status quo ante would be the cost of printing the repeal bill and signing it into law.

Picture a lion, chained to the ground so she cannot hunt, weighed down with a heavy iron collar so she cannot lift her head to eat, and presented with oatmeal instead of meat.  Is it any wonder such a beast would waste away and become sick? Would you express astonishment if her muscles atrophied and her skin sagged? But release her and let her hunt easy prey and will she not recover?