It’s done: President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, into law last week. But this doesn’t mean Uncle Sam is coming to the rescue. Instead, taxpayers are again getting fleeced to fund Democrats’ allies. The ARPA isn’t about economics. It’s about politics.

The law has little to do with the pandemic. Bailouts for long-insolvent pensions and fiscally irresponsible local governments won’t help combat the virus. Instead, the law is a left-wing wish list, rammed through under the pretext of boosting the economy.

As an economist, I can’t let stand the claim that we need the ARPA’s spending injection for the economy to recover. Contrary to its defenders, our current economic problems have little to do with anemic spending.

The performance of the economy depends on both the supply side and the demand side. The supply side has to do with the availability of labor, capital and natural resources, as well as the technology we use to transform those inputs into valuable outputs.