Spending and Jobs

Following Tuesday’s commentary on a Tax Foundation report, MO Rage has written another post that has me scratching my head. This one’s about government spending, and it contains the following statement:

I totally agree that we need to reduce spending but, frankly, not on jobs.

All government spending translates into a job for somebody. Even when it’s as simple as sending checks directly to citizens, government spending keeps people employed producing the envelopes and printing the checks.

So cutting government spending puts people out of work — there’s no way around it. The good news is that governments that spend less can tax less, leaving more wealth available for job creation in the private sector.

It’s something to keep in mind when state agencies try to ward off spending cuts, as they did earlier this week.