Email to Eugene Robinson

Mr. Robinson,

A few questions in response to your column:

• The US attempted to spend itself out of recession under Hoover and Roosevelt, as did Japan during the 1990s. None of these efforts met with success, why do you think under Obama it will be different? I suppose you could point to spending during WWII, but that was also a time of severe rationing and deprivation. Employment is not to be confused with prosperity.

• The money being spent by the government has to be borrowed from somewhere. That means that someone is letting the government borrow their money, money that presumably would have otherwise been spent or invested elsewhere by that individual. Why do you think the money spent by the government would be more effective than letting it remain in the private sector? Do you think that politicians have a better grasp on the most productive use for money than individuals? If so, why?

• On a similar note, why is it preferable to have government spending instead of tax cuts? Why not leave the money with individuals to spend as they see fit? Again, what basis is there for believing that government will make better decisions about how the money is spent than the people who earned it in the first place?

• You openly praised spending on pork projects as "a good thing, not an outrage." Why is money spent on such projects preferable to letting people who earned the money keep it and spend as they see fit?

• In your column you stated that tax cuts are "the Republican prescription that helped get us into these desperate straits." Can you elaborate on this? I am confused as to how tax cuts produced the current recession. Republicans also engaged in massive deficit spending. Shouldn't a "change" president attempt to deviate from this?
  

• In 1993 President Clinton attempted to pass a stimulus package of less than $20 billion that was eventually pared down to $4 billion in unemployment benefits under heavy Republican criticism. The economy performed rather well in subsequent years despite (because of?) this tiny stimulus package. What lessons do you think should be drawn from that? Why was huge government spending unnecessary then but necessary now?

Thanks for your consideration.

Regards,

Colin