Government spending helps stimulate economy

I believe that the Dec. 17 editorial cartoon was misleading and unfair. It showed President Obama, with a shovel, digging a big deficit hole to China.

Three points should be made:

First, Obama inherited 92 percent of that huge deficit hole when he took office. Second, it was George W. Bush who signed the first economic stimulus package. Third, economists say that more spending is exactly what America needs right now for economic recovery.

Consumers have stopped spending and banks have stopped lending. Unemployment is high.

In times like these, a government is the spender of last resort, economists say, to save the economy. With interest rates at zero, stimulus was the only option left, and it has worked.

Our economy has a pulse again, the unemployment rate is much better than it would have been without stimulus, but we are not out of the woods yet. We still need to create even more jobs. More jobs means more people paying taxes, and so forth. With a booming economy, the government will get back all the stimulus money, and more.

Without stimulus, our country would languish in recession for decades.

Justin Holdes

West Branch