Earlier this month we asked, “Why Is the Left So Eager to Waste Money?” Last night on the News Hour, Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, was nice enough to explain it to us:

JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Well, let’s talk about the stimulus package that is on the table, and the battle has clearly been joined now. Dean Baker, what do you see as the key thing that must happen to get jobs out of the stimulus package?

DEAN BAKER: Well, basically, to put it crudely, you have to spend money. You know, we heard a discussion, is this a good way to spend money, sod on the mall? I mean, I actually don’t mind the mall looking nice. But the point is, you’re employing people.

Even if it’s wasteful, there’s a line — you go back to Keynes — there’s a line where he says, “We could pay people to dig holes and fill them up again. At least we’ve employed them.”