A better approach to 'stimulus'

The government's methods of choice for battling this recession have included bailouts and nationalization of the financing industry, modest tax rebates and credits, and spending projects on an unprecedented scale. At least thrice, Congress and two different presidents (of near polar opposition) have spent money by the barrel-full to end the recession.

First, with unemployment near 5 percent (a healthy baseline, according to nearly all economists) last February, President Bush insisted on a $152 billion rebate and aid program. Congress acquiesced. Next, with unemployment at about 6 percent last September, President Bush demanded a $700 billion bailout of irresponsible banks. Congress agreed. Unfortunately, as Ronald Reagan put it, "the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan." So finally, with unemployment at about 7 percent this February, President Obama promoted a $787 billion rebate and aid and infrastructure spending extravaganza. Congress nearly peed itself with glee, and then piled on even more.

Today unemployment is pushing 10 percent, and almost nobody thinks things will get better soon.

All in, the federal government has spent more than $1.6 trillion to fight this recession. And each time the government has acted, the recession has grown more severe.

In 12 months, these economic stimulus/aid/rescue plans have added nearly 20 percent to the national debt (the rest of which had been accrued over two centuries). They have bred resentment and division. And they have failed miserably.

Today, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's triumphant launch, I suggest a different course of action would have been preferable.

During the 1960s, the United States spent less than $20 billion (adjusted for inflation, about $140 billion, or 7 percent of what's been wasted in the name of "stimulus" since last February) to achieve lunar exploration. Prior to the Apollo project, no human had ever left low-earth orbit. None has done so since.

The United States caught up to the Soviet Union in the space race, and left the USSR in the vapor trails. Before the Apollo program, the Soviet Union had won every significant "first" (first satellite, first man outside earth's atmosphere). After Apollo, the Soviet Union was far behind with no hope of ever catching up. Astronauts planted Old Glory and played golf in places Cosmonauts are still dreaming of.

It is no small thing that the excitement of the lunar mission ignited ferocious interest in engineering throughout the country. That's economic stimulus. Children in math and physics classes had interesting reasons to pay attention. That's economic stimulus. Inventiveness was cool. That's economic stimulus. More than 20,000 companies and universities, and more than 400,000 people worked directly for the Apollo program (those are high-tech, high-paying jobs). That's economic stimulus. (The difference is, these jobs actually built things and improved people's lives.)

The nation had a rallying point to work towards. Now that it's ended, we have something to be proud of.

Consider: The American space program was in its infancy when the first Soviet cosmonaut left the bounds of Earth. Six weeks later, President John F. Kennedy challenged our space-novice nation to go to the moon. Eight years later, Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind. All for $20 billion.

Now consider the improvements we've made in fuel economy, communication equipment, computing power, lightweight materials and aerodynamics. Consider the improvements in our knowledge of human health in adverse conditions (and in climate control systems). Consider our vast industrial and technological upgrades.

Who doesn't believe Americans could have taken that $1.6 trillion that was just frittered away and instead employed it to land a human on Mars in the next 25 years?

We are left to wonder what new technologies we would have invented along the way. It is sadly possible that they will never be invented, now.

President Kennedy will be forever remembered as the visionary who inspired his nation to reach the moon. The "stimuli" of Presidents Bush and Obama will be treated far less kindly by history, and rightfully so.