Cutting Government Creates Jobs Like Cutting Taxes Increases Revenue

By Dave Johnson

March 17, 2011--A "report" from Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee says that the path to job creation is cutting ... the very things that create jobs. This is like saying that cutting taxes increases revenue. We know how that worked out, and the job-consequences of budget cuts are going to be just as disastrous.

Sometimes you can cut through ideology by looking at what actually happens in the real world. Reagan cut taxes: huge deficits resulted. Clinton raised taxes, the deficits went away.

Bush cut taxes, we went back to huge deficits. And you can see the same thing when you look at government spending and jobs. England and Greece are trying austerity, and their economies are sinking as a result.

In 1937 the United States learned this lesson, succumbing to deficit cutting which choked off the recovery from the depression. On the other hand, the "stimulus" boosted the economy, held off a depression and created millions of jobs -- but not enough jobs to overcome the Bush years.

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