A superb example of smart politics defeating intelligent economics:
"President Barack Obama announced that he would freeze pay for civilian federal employees for two years in a move that precludes a looming debate in Congress about how best to tackle the growing federal deficits."
Franklin Roosevelt's Economy Act of 1933 also cut federal workers' pay, which merely accentuated the economy's deflationary spiral.
A more sensible solution -- and I'm not joking, much -- to both the unemployment and deficit problems would be for the U.S. government to hire 7.5 million jobless Americans to dig holes east of the Mississippi, then transport the dirt to the holes dug west of the Mississippi by the other 7.5 million jobless Americans, who sent their dirt eastward.
Re-dig, re-transport, and repeat until the diggers are gradually hired away.