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An observation that recently circulated on the Internet noted: "In 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country and 850 plus billion dollars to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze.

Now if that doesn't make you nervous, what does?"

Turner Catledge, a journalist during the Roosevelt era, described the pattern used by the Roosevelt administration to sell his legislative proposals to the public as follows: "First there is the early 'idea' period, when either the President or some group of his associates hatches the rather rough form of what is to be attempted. Then there is the selling stage, in which the person or the group who thinks up the idea has to 'sell' it to the other. There follows in third place the 'method' stage when the modus operandi is evolved. The there comes the final 'publicity' stage when the program is announced and the argument is submitted both to Congress and the public in behalf of its adoption."

Sound familiar? It should. It's the tried and true formula being used by Obama and his administration to panic the public into accepting the so-called stimulus package that has been wending its way through Congress.

Economist Walter Williams has observed: "The stimulus package being discussed is politically smart but economically stupid. It's that bedeviling, omnipresent Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy problem again. ... A far more important measure that Congress can take toward a healthy economy is to ensure that the 2003 tax cuts don't expire in 2010 as scheduled. If not, there are 15 separate taxes scheduled to rise in 2010, costing Americans $200 billion a year in increased taxes. In the face of a recession, we don't need that."

And, columnist Michelle Malkin noted: "Bashing Rush Limbaugh last week, Obama urged GOP lawmakers to ignore the voices of obstructionism and sign on to his behemoth stimulus package: 'We shouldn't let partisan politics derail what are very important things that need to get done.' ... History has shown us that 'Get Things Done' is mindless liberal code for passing ineffective legislation and expanding government for government's sake."

In an open letter disseminated by the Cato Institute, two hundred economists stated, "More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's 'lost decade' in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today."

In short, the stimulus package being proposed by Congress is being hyped as the way to spend our way to prosperity. The president has been telling us that if we don't act immediately, the nation may never recover from its present condition, which he has characterized as the worst economy since the Great Depression. However, if it is really possible to spend our way out of a recession, why isn't the economy perpetually strong?

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