By Holland example it'll cost $5 trillion to restore 8 million jobs

...President Barack Obama and Gov. Jennifer Granholm came to Holland bearing gifts: cash subsidies for an electric car battery plant owned by the Korean firm LG Chem. The federal contribution is $151 million in "stimulus" money, and Michigan taxpayers are kicking in another $100 million in cash (plus more later). Of course the real gift-givers are taxpayers, who are all but buying the plant for the company, given that its construction is expected to cost between $244 million and $303 million.

Both President Obama and Gov. Granholm boasted at the event that the plant is a sign of "economic recovery." Yet each of the approximately 400 jobs the operation is expected to generate will cost taxpayers $625,000. At this rate, it would cost $5 trillion to provide employment to the approximately 8 million Americans who have lost their jobs in the current downturn. That amount represents almost one-third of the nation's annual gross domestic product.

(The state subsidy alone amounts to $250,000 per job. At this rate, buying back all of the nearly 600,000 jobs lost here since 2003 would cost Michigan taxpayers $150 billion, or almost half the state's total output for a year.)

Government manipulates all markets, driving up prices; adds 6 percent to home prices

A recent CBO report estimated that the government spends about $300 billion to intervene in the housing market each year. That's based on a range of activities, from direct subsidies to homebuyers, to the mortgage interest tax deduction, and the backstop of Fannie and Freddie.

And thus it's no surprise that the housing market doesn't work like other markets, and that we had a major bubble there. Even now, Goldman Sachs estimates, the government is adding at least 5% to the cost of each home, through its various "affordability" measures.

But it's not just housing. Virtually every important sector of the economy is being manipulated in some way.

ACORN has received $12.5 million tax dollars

After checking a few federal spending reports, economist Chris Edwards has revealed exactly how much money ACORN received over the past few years from taxpayers.


According to the database, taxpayers supported ACORN to the tune of more than $12.5 million from 2003 to 2007.

Edwards says cutting off ACORN is only the beginning:

ACORN’s share of overall federal subsidies is tiny, but as thousands of similar organizations have become hooked on 1,800 different federal subsidy programs, a powerful lobbying force has been created that propels the $3.6 trillion spending juggernaut. ACORN’s own website touts its lobbying success in helping to pass various big government programs. So cutting off ACORN is a start, but just a small start at the daunting task of cutting back the giant federal spending empire.