Government Spending: What Are the Benefits?

[Lunar]

Some might also be inclined to point out that it's almost impossible NOT to run up the deficit during a recession.  Your revenues are crashing - the poor are losing their jobs, businesses have ceased investing, and the rich are losing vast amounts of their income - while your social expenditures like unemployment are going up.  If you cut anything then you are creating another unemployed worker who is going to spend less, pay no taxes, and simply absorb the government's benefits (or starve) until jobs start coming back to the economy.

This issue is obviously tangent to the idea of a specific Keynesian spending package, and the whole issue is infinitely more complex than that, I just thought I'd point out some obvious on this thread.