Too Little, Too Late?

Quite possibly. There are far too many people who worship at the altar of FDR. Possibly more than the number who worship the Obamessiah.

But we can at least get the word out now.

It’s exciting that the world is so excited about Barack Obama. I’m excited, too. That he achieved the presidency says something good about America.

But the excitement also frightens me. It reinforces the worst impulse of the media and political class: the assumption that all progress comes from Washington. In a free society, with constitutionally limited government, the president would be a mere executive who sees to it that predictable and understandable laws are enforced. But sadly, the prestige and power of the presidency have grown, and liberty has contracted. That is not something to celebrate.

The infatuated chattering classes now demand “action” on the economy. They use positive words like “bold steps.” The insufferable New York Times suggests the choice is “between a big-bang strategy of pressing aggressively on multiple fronts versus a more pragmatic, step-by-step approach …. ” There is endless talk about how FDR ended the Great Depression and how Obama will apply similar “stimulus.”

Please. FDR’s “bold” moves didn’t end the Depression. They prolonged it by discouraging capital investment. Hoover and Roosevelt turned what might have been a brief downturn into 10 years of double-digit unemployment.

That is John Stossel writing about the UCLA study showing how FDR’s policies lengthened the Great Depression by at least seven years 9which we wrote about here nearly a month before the election.

But if you follow this link, you’ll see that the UCLA study is only repeating old news.

FDR’s own Treasury Secretary, Henry Morganthau too Congress in 1939 said

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot!”

Now exactly what reason would the education industry have for leaving statements like this out of textbooks? I’ll let you all answer that question.