Ready? Here it is:

The government has as much to do with making an economy grow as a rooster has with the sun coming up*.

In my opinion, the best thing that could happen for the economy is for NO "stimulus bill" to ever make it out of Congress. While the Democrats and Republicans tear at each other like Kilkenny cats, the economy will naturally surface and rise on its own, unburdened by whatever half-assed "fix" comes out of Washington.

Buck makes a good point about the uncertainty of interest rates affecting the current economy. What few people realize is the stifling effect on the private sector of an arbitrary government that can change the rules of commerce (taxes, regulations, export laws, almost ad infinitum) on a whim, and ruin the long-term plans of industries and other businesses. A good industry will plan years ahead. Not know what the heck the tax rate is going to be two years from now puts a damper on this.

It would curl your hair to realize how much of our productivity is lost due to government meddling in the economy. As just one example, the costs of compliance with the tax code to the United States range from $200 to $400 billion annually. That is the cost of filling out forms, etc., and DOES NOT include the actual taxes paid. And of course, this does not count the lost opportunities had that money been made available for productive purposes. One solution proposed has been replacing the income tax with a sales tax, but this runs into the same brick wall in Washington as privatizing Social Security: it removes a major government shackle from the necks of the citizens of the U.S., and as I have pointed out, the purpose of the government is to gain and keep power, not to actually solve problems.

* What they CAN do is screw it up--a great example is the savings-and-loan debacle, which was instigated (similar to California's energy crisis) when the government half-deregulated the industry (removed operational controls, but attempted to insulate the industry from failure with deposit insurance.) The result was predictable--the equivalent of telling people they can legally loot stores and someone else will pay for the lost property.