Quite honestly, we should evaluate how we gauge economic activity. GDP is a relic of Keynesian economics, which anyone with an ounce of intelligence and exposure to other schools of economic thought, knows does not work. To be explicit, GDP includes government spending, as if that is a product that government makes. Government rarely makes anything other than a mess. GDP double counts. Some government spending trickles down to business producing goods and services, thus GDP counts government spending when it occurs and then double counts when a business actually produces something using government dollars. Those government dollars, or better stated taxpayer dollars, are extremely inefficient. They are taken from your paycheck, sent to Washington, then rinsed through bureaucracy, and redistributed in even more inefficient and wasteful ways.
Bottom line: government does not produce a product. Government employees don’t build anything. They are an inefficient overhead to all real domestic production. We need to make government as small as possible. That puts more workers and money into the private sector to make tangible products and services.
Yes, yes and yes!
Instead of the tooth fairy "government multiplier" argument the government only does the reverse. It is a productivity decimator.
Where has government anywhere in history spurred on economic activity greater than private enterprise with the same amount of capital? It has never happened and cannot happen.