Policy is wrong - A crossroad for US economy

By Shahab Sabahi

Energy and Environment - Policy analysis research group

The ongoing budget ceiling debate between the US congress and the Obama administration evokes Henry Morgenthau, Roosevelt’s treasury secretary, and his argument. Alike the congress today, Morgenthau opposed the Keynesian government spending idea and advocated the budget balancing and tax cut.
With Morgenthau’s idea the great depression continued until 1941, when the U.S. entered World War II. Under the war circumstances, the US government shouldered massive war spending and it was doubled the Gross National Product.  Unemployment was slashed from 14% in 1940 to less than 2% in 1943 as the workforce grew by ten million. The following year after the war, 1946, positive growth effect continued and federal spending remained high at $62 billion. The war supplies made the top priority, regardless of cost and efficiencies.
Eventually the idea of government spending (Keynesian spending) and business regulation won the ground and the term of government stimulation package entered in the political language 
Apart of any technical analysis, with paying a careful look in Friday’s job report, it is obvious that Obama’s effort fails to evolve the economy by stimulation. 
What went wrong with Obama’s policy? It seems that he tried to stimulate the economy with an increase in government spending, but indeed, he did not.
Dislike Roosevelt’s policy; today there are not any public works projects, defense projects and actually half a million fewer government employees are now out of work since 2008.
Obama’s stimulus much consisted of tax cuts, aid to distressed families and aid to hard-pressed state and local governments and not spending. They were not the kind of job-creation program. As it was circulated between a few economists that that tax cuts would be ineffective and that the proposed spending was inadequate. So it is now proved.
The mortgage relief of $46 billion agreed to spend to help families stay in their homes, however about $2 billion has been spent instead.
It seems we should say:
Dear J.P. Sartre, no longer exists human's ability to think of what is not. Today human cannot think of what exists. We run out of options and turn to dogma .
Public administrators lose their sights and fail to come up with any new ideas. Even they are unfamiliar with what historical trends show. Moreover they are deaf to scholars’ voices and arguments, if they do not favored their policies.