Government and Health of Economy

Economy and its relation to the government is akin to a person in his relation to a doctor. While the economy is healthy, there is no need for the government intervention, and government intervention does more harm than good. When the economy gets seriously sick, it does take government intervention to fix it. But this intervention is only good for as long as it takes for the economy to recover; after which the government should again leave the economy to its own devices and practice the Hippocratic Oath of "do no harm."

When Obama came into power, the patient was very sick. Eight years of mismanagement, corruption and fiscal irresponsibility brought America to the worst place it's been since the Great Depression. Obama's intervention prevented the sickness from getting worse. And now that the economy is no longer as sick, it's time to reduce the government intervention and leave the economy again in charge of its own well-being.

When FDR created welfare, he meant it as a temporary fix rather than as a lifestyle. When Clinton saved the Mexican economy from collapsing in 1995, he used loans rather than outlays - loans that Mexico repaid ahead of deadline. Corporate welfare is as unnecessary and as unsustainable over the long term as is classical welfare. It suffocates business activity while using taxpayer money to reward bad business practices; and policies of this sort are destructive to the nation's economic health.

Right now, the government debt stands in the way of economic well-being and sucks investment funds out of the private sector. Right now, economic uncertainty is preventing businesses from investing. For the economy to actually recover these self-defeating policies should be brought to an end and replaced with the successful policies of the Clinton administration, in which America had both vast economic growth and fiscal sanity. These policies - spending control, government efficiency, deficit-fighting pollicies and slighly higher taxes on people who can afford to pay them - gave America its greatest period of peace and prosperity; and it is to these policies that America should return if it is to again come to such a place.

A Great Depression scenario has been avoided. More application of the same medicine is counter-productive. The economy does not need any longer to be helped; it needs to be allowed to stand on its own. The government has done its part. The medicine has worked. Now it is time leave the patient in charge of his own well-being.