“Government is not the generator of economic growth; working people are.”

A slight clarification, working people that produce wealth, generate economic growth.

This is correct. Government produces exactly nothing and can give no one anything it didn't rob Peter to pay Paul with.

Good catch Mike. It is only the ignornt that can believe hiring 16,000 new IRS agents is creating productive jobs. It is those that produce wealth who must pay their wages. After all (ha ha), money to pay their wages doesn't grow on trees.

Without some government programs, the working poor would be worse off than they already are. Without Medicare thousands of elderly would struggle even more than they do. Phil Gramm is far removed from the "working people."

Sandra, emotionally, that's a nice limerick from an effectually imposed socialism but, it has nothing to do with the quote's subject of generating economic growth. As Anon set forth, the tyrants new 1600 IRS positions will not generate anything productive, it will only perform the desired task of killing economic growth, including jobs that would have been associated therewith. Without generating substantive economic growth, all the Med. . . programs will die a natural death.

What Sandra's "surface" thinking misses completely is that we have working poor due to existing government policies. Same goes for an elderly population so over taxed their entire working career that they are now unable to use their own savings to see them through, because they have no savings. "More" government is never the right solution.

Sandras' reply was typical knee-jerk liberal speak and had nothing to do with the quote. Government does't generate economic growth, it restricts it and Nancy, Reed,Obama and the gang know this. Killing our economy and building a lovely socialist Amerika is what the are doing.

J Carlton, once, a long long time ago, I was involved with securities and insurance. One of the companies showed that if an individual would put their's and their employer's matching FDIC funds into a moderate savings program, from age 16 to age 66, that individual could retire with millions in the bank. Interest alone on the retiree's personal funds would far surpass SS payments. The savings could be used in generating substantive economic growth. Even without a fractional reserve funny money system, or a compelled compliant tyrannical program, (in a real money system) such savings would secure a greater life style (standard of living and medical care) than is now had. So, a shallow socialists anecdote to a socialist created problem, only worsens the ultimate and core problem.

Eventually there is a line that cannot be ignored: when there are more people living off the labors and production of the industrious than there are those doing the actual producing, the organism will die, no matter how much money you print up -- you can't eat paper. It does appear that the government policies of the last 80 years has reduced America from an industrial giant to a debtor nation -- I do not believe this is accidental, I believe it is the plan. The only jobs being created right now are more government jobs from money borrowed off the backs of the children. Government has placed so many restrictions on producing that even planting a garden in your yard is considered illegal without paying some office for the permission. Grow something!

Good observation Mike, and one I agree with whole heartedly.

Excellent point, Mike! I figured that out when I was 12 working with compounded interest. "Do the math," I would say to the teacher. If we would just save first before spending instead of borrowing first and paying back with interest, we would pay so much less. But why will we pay a bill but not save? Shouldn't that be taught in school? Of course, the banking cartel makes sure that the banks are crashed every 25 years or so, so the theory only works with real money. Do the math -- if you have a child and put $20 a week into a savings account for her for the next 20 years, then let it ride for another 20 years, the kid could retire at 40 with enough money to live for the rest of her life. But pay the gov $20,000 a year in taxes, and you will get a monthly pension that barely covers your expenses -- and that money will be borrowed at interest for the rest of us to pay. Predatory government must be fought and defeated -- simple as that. DO THE MATH!

Mike, SSN was started as a cash cow for the government to use as it wishes. If the BIG trust fund were there-then why the freeze. The cash cow has run dry.

Gramm is a robot, along with the other republican "saviors of our capitalism"

c donnelly, is the savior title you used supposed to spin, transfer or lesson Mr. Obomunist Goodwrench's (mmm, mmm, mmm) negative mantra? Who are these other republicans that are the saviors of our capitalism?

If it were not for the Governments help, there would be a lot less poverty and need for help. The goal of the party of big government is to increase the need and the programs are made to accomplish just that. The "compassion" destroys the family unit and the individual to the point that chronic dependence follows. The welfare system was improved in the 90's by the congress but it is returning to its original state under the new administration because it was working to reduce poverty. That could not be tolerated because that is not the purpose of "welfare as we know it".