In a recession governments generally simulate the economy using either monetary policy (in the U.S. that's done by the Federal Reserve Board) or fiscal policy (that's taxing and spending; in the US. the legislative and executive branches handle that). The idea is to get money into people's hands. They will spend the money--say on new cars--and the company that makes the cars will hire more workers, who will in turn receive wages that they will spend, and we will see an improving economy.
You can also put money into people's hands by hiring them (the WPA in the Depression), by giving them money (unemployment benefits), by subsidizing businesses to hire more workers, and by cutting taxes. If you do cut taxes, you better cut the taxes of people who will actually spend the money. People who make more than a quarter of a million a year are not the kind of people who spend much money on consumer goods.
Stimulus programs or tax cutting makes the deficit worse. Big whoop. If you try to balance the budget during a depression (the Hoover policy) guess what? It gets worse. Anybody with half a brain can see that. Unfortunately, that does not include most of the newly elected congressional Republicans. What a disaster for the country.
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