In doing some research for a post about the latest stimulus proposals, I came across this quote in the New York Times about the proposed government infrastructure bank, from Dr. Samuel Staley of the Reason Foundation. Dr. Staley has written for the Show-Me Institute, so it makes sense to share it with you all:

Samuel Staley, director of urban growth and land-use policy for the Reason Foundation, a libertarian research group, said the best way to spend money efficiently would be to establish the bank as a revolving loan fund so that money for new projects would not become available until money for previous projects had been repaid.

Mr. Staley expressed concern that in their zeal to spur growth and create jobs, Congress and the Obama administration would not impose such limits.

“With the $800 billion stimulus program, they were literally just dumping money into the economy,” he said. “There was little legitimate cost-benefit analysis.”

I would propose that dumping money is one thing governments at all levels are very good at.