My commentary, “Government action can’t save the economy,” was recently published in The Trinity Journal. Read it here:

Government action can’t save the economy

By James D. Veltmeyer, MD

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the federal government in conjunction with the nation’s privately-owned central bank – the Federal Reserve System – has flooded our economy with trillions of dollars in new liquidity to cushion the American people from the fallout from the completely unnecessary economic lockdown. The question we face is whether the roughly $7 trillion in bailout and stimulus funds in the CARES Act and in the Fed’s unprecedented money-printing will actually spur a rebirth of commercial activity or lead to another decade of slow or non-existent growth.

The last time we tried a massive stimulus effort launched by Washington we got the $700 billion TARP bailout of the big Wall Street banks by the outgoing Bush Administration in 2008. That wholly unjustified “food stamps for the rich” scheme was loudly opposed by constitutional conservatives such as Congressman Ron Paul and helped launch the Tea Party movement. Why should the very banks that were responsible for the irresponsible lending policies that caused the subprime mortgage collapse get their irresponsibility rewarded by the U.S. taxpayer? The incoming Obama Administration followed with an $800 billion “shovel-ready” stimulus plan that wound up sending money to congressional districts that did not exist and to bankrupt companies like the infamous Solyndra.