Solution for the Economy: Print Money--right?

OK, OK, I'm really consumed by this economy thing. I just heard Ben Stein say something OUTRAGEOUS to my fave radio host, who was quoting an article saying the federal government doesn't just "have" money; all its funds are taken from somewhere else, like taxpayers, or borrowed from China.

Ben Stein said, "that's easy to dispense with, because it's simply not true. The government can just print more money."

I was going nuts at that--thinking, OK, so there are rooms full of piles of money. What does the government DO with it? It's useless unless it's part of a transaction--somebody has to provide some product or service to earn it, and then somebody has to use it to buy something, right?

Wrong. Government can simply give it away! Good old Government, my favorite uncle! My sugar Daddy! Ben Stein said that if the government wants to do some massive program, they'll just print the money or notes or checks and give it out! Nobody has to pay it back. Nobody has to DO anything for it. It can "bail out" delinquent car companies or defaulting sub-prime mortgage homeowners, or perhaps even be "used" for projects, just like Roosevelt after the Great Depression did(who cares if that exacerbated the problem instead of solving it?).

The Government has unlimited funds! I'm finally educated. And now I wonder why the government even NEEDS our taxes.

Ben Stein said that putting too much fabricated money out there is terribly inflationary. Gee, in a country as big as ours, if we just put out the few billions it takes to run things, who'd notice? We could all be busy generating lots and lots MORE money, making our economy explode with productivity, if there were no taxes!!

Tell me where I'm wrong. I've got to get back to cooking for Shabbat--it comes in at 4 pm in the winter!!