John Stossel says “give me a break” to the incoming Obama Administration as they unload their interventionist plans for economic recovery:

Obama wants to act quickly. In the name of stimulating the economy, he plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars the government does not have to convert the economy from carbon-based fuels to “green” alternatives. Even if that were a good idea — and it’s definitely not — it would not bring recovery. Any money the government spends must be taxed, borrowed or conjured out of thin air by the Federal Reserve, and that will reduce sound private investment.

Obama has no real wealth to inject into the economy. He can only move around existing money while inflation robs us of purchasing power. Meanwhile, private investors who might have produced a better engine, battery, computer, cancer treatment or other wealth-creating and life-enhancing innovations, hold back for fear that big government will undermine productive efforts.

The way to a lasting recovery is to greatly lighten the burdens of government. Then free Americans will save and invest.

Grand interventionist reforms go in precisely the wrong direction.

It’s going to be a long and painful four years — and that’s just on the domestic side of things.