We can't consume what we don't produce

George Melloan explains in this article how short term attempts to stimulate demand through government spending (Keynesian economics for you science majors) have failed in the past. Here's a taste:

If a government hampers production through heavy taxes and economic regulation - -or by inflating the currency -- production will slow down and there will be less to consume. To revive production, government must reduce the tax and regulatory burden and kill inflation -- which Reagan did to such good effect. Tossing dollars from planes doesn't do it; neither did Hoover's attempts to help farmers through protectionism, which proved disastrous, nor FDR's unconstitutional scheme to help producers with price-fixing cartels.