First up we have an article by a couple of academic economists who point out that not only did the New Deal not help during the Great Depression, but it probably extended it by 3-5 years beyond when it would have ended if they had just left things alone read it here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123353276749137485.html.

Then we have another article pointing out that the money in both versions of the stimulus bill (House and Senate) that is supposed to help expand the reach of broadband is so tied up with conditions and counter-incentives that no broadband company would touch the money with a 10 foot pole http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123353476246637693.html

One of my favorite parts of the last article points out that the cost of broadband, in terms of a standard unit is $3 in the US, 13 cents in Japan and 33 cents in France. Why the difference? Because government regulations designed to “help” consumers discourage the completion that drives the price down.

This just goes to show that Ronald Reagan was right Government is not the answer. There are only a couple of things that the Federal Government can do that cannot be done by the individual states better. They can provide for the National Defense (and trust me…after 25 years in that job, they don’t do a great job, they just do it better than the states could) and they can resolve disputes between states…again, not that they do that particularly well they just do it better than the states can themselves.

Obama’s response to the Federal Government’s ability to break bowling balls is to get the Federal Government even more involved. He wants to regulate salaries at banks and on Wall Street. He wants to tell the automobile companies what type of cars they must sell. He wants to force banks to make more loans (in spite of the fact that a) banks making bad loans is what got us here and b) turns out that banks lent more money last year than the year before). And perhaps the most stupid thing of all, when we are in a recession caused by people borrowing money they didn’t have the means to repay, Obama wants the Government to borrow money it doesn’t have the means to repay to encourage banks to lend money to consumers who don’t have the means to repay.

If this weren’t so tragically stupid, it would be hilarious.