Government helping; Goldberg can’t stand it

Jonah Goldberg has found something new to hate about the Obama administration (“How much is that clunker sitting in the window?,” Aug. 10). Cash for Clunkers is a popular and successful economic stimulus program.

If the president takes action to boost us out of a severe recession, Goldberg complains. If President Barack Obama did nothing and we went into a second Great Depression, Goldberg would complain about that. Obama cannot win.

Pulitzer-prize winning economist Paul Krugman wrote in the Aug. 10 New York Times, “What saved us from a full replay of the Great Depression? The answer, basically, is Big Government. The government has played a crucial stabilizing role. All this has helped support the economy in its time of need, in a way that didn't happen back in 1930. And yes, this means that budget deficits - which are a bad thing in normal times - are actually a good thing right now. Ronald Reagan was wrong: sometimes the private sector is the problem, and government is the solution. And aren't you glad that right now the government is being run by people who don't hate government?”

Maybe some day Goldberg will concede that big government can sometimes get things right, but I'm not holding my breath. To Goldberg, nothing can stimulate the economy except more tax cuts for the rich.

George Hewland

Cedar Rapids