Paying People Not to Work Is Not an Economic Stimulus

Paying People Not to Work Is Not an Economic Stimulus
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 26, 2020. Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
Stephen Moore
Updated:
Commentary

Back in 2009, Nancy Pelosi infamously declared the best way to revive the economy was to dole out ever more generous food stamps and unemployment benefits. The more people collecting welfare the better. At the time, this notion seemed laughable. Now this economic illiteracy seems to have become a conventional wisdom.

Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore
Author
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, chief economist at FreedomWorks, and co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. He served as a senior economic adviser to Donald Trump. His latest book is “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Impoverishing America.”
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