Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on The Progressive Fallacies in Stimulus Talk

President Obama was only regurgitating his party's conventional wisdom when he remarked that the private sector was doing just "fine"—but the public sector needed stimulating to create jobs and boost economic growth. Why he should get lampooned for something Harry Reid and others have said a million times is unclear. But repetition does not make a stupid idea less stupid, suggests Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her latest column at The Daily. Obama's statement "manages to pack in virtually every 'progressive' economic fallacy — and then some," she writes:

For starters, his claim that private-sector job growth is hunky-dory is hooey. It is true that private companies have added 4.3 million jobs since February 2010. However, this represents a 2.8 percent rate of job growth compared to the 8 percent average after previous recoveries — despite (or perhaps because of) $800 billion in stimulus spending.

But instead of asking whether the effects of his own policies — like uncertainty over the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the compliance costs of Obamacare — might be choking the private sector, Obama wants to apply his stimulus therapy to the public sector. This won't produce overall growth. Indeed, more government spending means a shrinking private sector, and there are three main reasons why.

 Go here to find out what they are.