Charles Krauthammer Smacks Down Margaret Carlson's Call for More Stimulus Spending: 'It Worked in ’09 and in ’10'

August 5th, 2011 6:01 PM

For the second week in a row, Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson got a much-needed education from Charles Krauthammer on PBS's "Inside Washington."

After Carlson gave the typical Keynesian response to Friday's unemployment report - "We’re cutting spending at a time when we should be adding spending to stimulate the economy and jobs" - Krauthammer without skipping a beat quipped, "The way it worked in ’09 and in ’10" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

GORDON PETERSON, HOST: The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 9.1 percent, and the private sector added 154,000 jobs, what is a net gain of 117 because there were 37,000 government jobs including 23,000 because of the Minnesota state shutdown. 117,000 in a, in a nation of 330 million people – that’s not very good news.

MARGARET CARLSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS: No, we need 300,000 to even, you know, show, show any growth. And there no signs of any growth, and we’re cutting spending at a time when we should be adding spending to stimulate the economy and jobs.

EVAN THOMAS, NEWSWEEK: But there is a larger…

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The way it, the way it worked in ’09 and in ’10.

Isn't it amazing how virtually every member of the media still believes in Keynesian economics despite its obvious failure in the past four and a half years?

As NewsBusters reported Friday:

Since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007, the deficit has grown tenfold from $160 billion to $1.6 trillion. Spending has increased $1.1 trillion or 41 percent as the debt exploded $5.9 trillion or 68 percent. Meanwhile, unemployment has gone from 4.4 percent to 9.1 percent.

How could anyone need any more proof that governments can't spend their way out of recessions?