Many of us were taught in school that FDR’s New Deal brought the country out of the Great Depression by using massive government spending to create jobs. This “truism” has been a mainstay of the media for generations, but the “truism” isn’t true. Roosevelt’s economic programs failed so miserably that by May 1939 unemployment stood at 20.7%! Secretary of Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, lamented, “after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . .” (Sound familiar?)
The seamier (fascistic) side of the New Deal was epitomized by such actions as federal National Recovery Act hooligans kicking down doors and arresting tailors whose only crimes were to work overtime and charge a few cents less to sew pants than the government allowed. Businesses drowned in wave after wave of stultifying red tape, and reams of regulations strangled incentives to hire and expand. (Sound familiar again?) New Dealer bureaucrats implemented dozens of hare-brained schemes, such as paying farmers not to plant crops, or destroying crops and livestock to raise prices. Many believe such nefarious actions prolonged and worsened the Depression.
Seventy years later, New Deal advocates once again control our government. In 2009 President Obama pushed a trillion dollar stimulus bill through a majority Democrat Congress. The bill was based on two premises: (1) it would ensure the unemployment rate would not exceed 8%, and (2) thousands of “shovel ready” jobs would immediately put Americans to work rebuilding our infrastructure. Neither happened. In early 2010 ObamaCare was rammed through a filibuster-proof Democrat Congress with promises of more jobs and lower health costs. How has that worked out?
“New Dealism,” now repackaged as “Hope and Change,” remains a failed economic policy. The American people rejected it in November 2010 and will resoundingly reject its advocates in 2012.
