Roger Kimball on an article by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London:
Boris Johnson, the redoubtable Mayor of London, cuts through the bickering fog of self-righteous protestation that characterizes so much political discourse today. The real debate, the Right Honorable Lord Mayor observes, is not between Labour spending versus Tory cuts-the “progressive” (Yanks read “Democratic”) versus the “hard-hearted” (read: “Republican”) approach to public expenditure. No, the real debate is between those who focus on disbursing and those who concentrate on creating wealth. What Mr. Johnson describes as a “small, sheep-like cough of protest” in his article in the London Telegraph actually contains more economic wisdom than 87 white papers issued by Washington or Whitehall, 789 columns emitted by Paul Krugman, or 7896 columns by Joseph Stiglitz. “This whole debate is back to front,” Mr Johnson observes.
Please do go read the entire article by Kimball and don’t miss Johnson’s piece over in The Telegraph.
One of the many things that bother me about the frantic spending frenzy by Democrats is that there is no thought whatsoever being given to real wealth creation. Oh, sure, they bleat about “creating” green jobs – but they are subsidizing those jobs to create them.
Private enterprise creates jobs. Government spending merely shifts money from one pocket to another. Don’t believe it? Look at the outright theft of two American automobile companies from the investors, giving large chunks of the ill-gotten goods to unions.
Look at the screeching that health care costs are out of control. And the proposed solution – spend more than a trillion dollars more. Only in Washington can spending much, much more of other people’s money be described as saving money.
Johnson is right, this debate is back-to-front. Wake up, folks. The golden goose is being slaughtered as we speak.
(And I fully intend to use Johnson’s new term “necrarchy” to describe government by and for zombies.)
Via RCP.
Pingback: Maggie's Farm