Austerity versus Growth

Reduced government spending does not automatically mean less economic vigor if the spending is useless and unproductive.  For example the job loss in Defense Department centric northern Virginia is sure to cut some of that quadruplicated intelligence cluster fucking going on there that is a pure economic waste. The Department of Energy has another cluster going on with turf battles between it's various constituencies; Coal, Oil & Gas, Nuclear and Green, all negating each other.  Eliminating the DOE would improve the economy in spite of the jobs lost. Value for money as practiced by Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, is an example of careful spending and high interest rates growing us out of the doldrums and into a boom economy in spite of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Bernanke's actions and warnings to the contrary.