The 2009 stimulus propped up a lot of government jobs but ultimately did not hold down unemployment as its supporters had projected that it would. Overall joblessness continued climbing after the $862 billion stimulus passed.
Today, unemployment stands at a high 9.1 percent.
So Republicans and three Democrat and independent members of the U.S. Senate were right to vote recently against spending tens of billions more dollars -- funded by a tax hike -- on a similar government jobs bill that has equally little promise of reducing unemployment.
The new $35 billion spending bill failed on a 50-50 vote, with all Republicans as well as Democrat Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, voting against it. Two other Democrats -- Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana -- voted for the bill but said it was deeply flawed.
No one should wish unemployment on anyone, whether that person is publicly or privately employed.
But it is irrational and unjust in a time when many private-sector workers are unemployed or at high risk of being laid off that the federal government keeps trying to prop up government jobs with taxes pulled from the private sector -- or with borrowed dollars that bloat our national debt.
"The fact is, we're not going to get this economy going again by growing the government. It's the private sector that's ultimately going to drive this recovery," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., correctly noted.
He pointed to the sad example of Greece, which is on the edge of bankruptcy, as a symbol of the results of long-term reckless government spending.
"Look, if big government were the key to economic growth, then countries like Greece would be booming right now," McConnell said.
The United States cannot spend its way out of debt, and it cannot spend its way to prosperity. The constant attempts -- sometimes unfortunately successful -- to tax, borrow and spend more are pushing our country in the wrong direction and stifling potential investment by the private sector.
It is long past time to put the brakes on government spending -- not expand it -- and to let the free market begin pulling us out of this economic crisis.