The truth of stimulus spending

A couple of weeks ago there was an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal (Oct 1) about government spending that supposedly spurs the economy. While the article was detailed and a bit over my head, the last paragraph did an excellent job at summary.

The bottom line is this: The available empirical evidence does
not support the idea that spending multipliers typically exceed one, and thus
spending stimulus programs will likely raise GDP by less than the increase in
government spending. Defense-spending multipliers exceeding one likely apply
only at very high unemployment rates, and nondefense multipliers are probably
smaller. However, there is empirical support for the proposition that tax rate
reductions will increase real GDP.

What it comes down to is that government spending does not stimulate the economy. Maybe the American populace may begin to understand this. I know the spenders in DC never will. It will need to take a complete change of the Washington guard before this may be accomplished.