What Obama Should Be Saying...

One of my favorite economists, Russell Roberts, writes a speech that he would love to hear from Obama. Many free-market advocates would love to hear these words flow from Obama's mouth as opposed to the massive government intervention that we have been hearing over the last couple of days:

(President Obama is eager to attack the economic crisis. Here is the speech I'd like to hear from him.)

My fellow Americans, these are fearful times. Through a set of public and private mistakes, our financial system is in disarray. The problems of Wall Street have spread to Main Street. Unemployment is on the rise...What can the federal government do to unleash the forces of recovery?

Many are urging a massive increase in government spending coupled with tax rebates as a way to jump start the economy. But the economy is not stagnant because of a lack of spending. The economy is stagnant because of a lack of confidence in the future. Government spending on bridges, roads and new schools will stimulate the construction industry. But without confidence, the benefits will not spread to the rest of the economy...

The argument for a massive spending increase presumes that spending is the source of our prosperity. But it is the combination of prudent spending and prudent investment that creates prosperity...

I would like to guarantee that we in Washington would spend an additional trillion dollars or so wisely. I would like to guarantee that such spending would be free of pork and the influence of the powerful. But those guarantees would be empty promises. As a former senator, I know the temptations of power and influence that are unleashed when a trillion dollars are slopping around in the government trough...

Trillions of dollars of annual red ink puts at risk the government's ability to keep its promises. That will discourage private investment and private spending, imperiling any recovery that might take place based on private initiative...

Finally, adding a trillion dollars to an already bloated federal budget is another sign that we in Washington are irresponsible and unable to live within our means. It is that failure of will and discipline that helped create the current situation--a belief that we could have cheap credit and ever-expanding home ownership without any consequences.

Read the full text here.