No Deal on This New Deal
by Tony Perkins
February 19, 2009
In a cedar chest at my home is a woolen thermal shirt. This is not just any thermal shirt; it is a part of history and a reminder. The shirt was a government issue, given to my grandfather. As a young man during the Great Depression, he worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps planting trees, building parks, and working on other public conservation projects. My grandfather earned a dollar a day.
The debate still continues among economists as to whether or not those vast public works projects that President Roosevelt launched through the CCC and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) along with other government spending helped end the nation’s worst economic crisis.
Regardless, FDR’s New Deal and the opportunities that it offered were significant to the many struggling families who were unemployed during a time when unemployment stood at almost 25%. Between 1935-1943 over 8 million Americans were on the payroll of the WPA alone.
FDR’s actions were controversial as he took the counterintuitive approach promoted by English economist John Maynard Keynes to increase government spending during hard economic times. They called it “priming the pump.” FDR’s efforts led to a radical and lasting expansion of the power and reach of the federal government.
Parallels have been drawn between the New Deal and the present government response to the financial crisis – but there are vast differences. The stimulus measure signed by President Obama this week, which according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office will cost about $1.3 trillion, will, according to the President, preserve or create 3-4 million jobs. Keep in mind that adjusted for inflation this stimulus measure will probably cost 3 times what the New Deal cost.
The overall cost of government spending designed to revive the economy will go even higher as the President announced a mortgage bailout this week that could cost up to another $250 billion dollars.
There is a vast difference between spending government money to create short-lived public works jobs and expanding the size and scope of federal agencies and directly bailing out bad mortgages. It may sound simplistic, but a government inspired hand up is much different than a government handout, and the implications will be lasting and far reaching, not only on the size of government but also on the American ethic.
The effect of FDR’s economic philosophy was so pronounced that 30 years later in 1971, President Richard Nixon said “We’re all Keynesians now.” The impact of this present economic approach is even more powerful — so much so that before it has even been implemented, a recent cover story of Newsweek declared: “We are all Socialists Now.”
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Comments
The CCC created some of the most beautiful lasting things that many love and appreciate today
like the magnificent Skyline Drive. They left for us beauty and beautified places and give us places we can escape to.
America would be somewhat poorer in visual beauty if weren’t for the beautiful parks we have.
If Bush-like folks were still in charge America the Beautiful would continue become America the 100% paved and developed no scenic views would be left for our children’s children to enjoy. Clean ater, air and land and pristine beauty mean nothing to kinds of folks. It’s time to repair the damage they left behind in their assaults on our National Forests, Parks and public lands.
Looks like pave the world, to hell with our parks folks are in charge here.
I can’t believe this assault on America’s rich heritage that FDR left us.
Parks are welcome escapes from the grind of the everyday world, places of refreshment and a chance for some of us to forget momentarily that we are less than equal to the majority of citizens in the land.
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President Bush started this massive bailout of these greedy entities that you read of in the papers and see on the news which continues today. So it’s not entirely Obama’s fault.
You should have added that the war brought us out of the depression & not Roosevelt. The war put industry to work making war needs. When the war was over the companies were viable to produce the needs of shortages caused by the war.
This is in mo way praising the loss of our soldiers but historically was an historical fact that the permanent job growth & need are dependent on viable companies & chapter 11 is the historical solution to producing viable companies as every one will bust a gut to keep their jobs. Haste only makes waste. The only thing that will happen is debts will be increased by sowing seeds out with no harvest & the appearance of a temporary appearance of helping.
ONLY GOD CAN HELP US NOW. PRAY.
Impeach Osama Obama. NOW!!!
If GREED & UNETHICAL CONDUCT got us into this mess…WHY would anyone think GREED & UNETHICAL CONDUCT & PRACTICE is going away in participation of the “Bailout” funds…and the stimulus package?
An EXAMPLE: On our own street, there is a house that is logically worth $240,000 max…the real estate records reveal it was purchased from the family (with illness that demanded sale)living there for a pittance of cash three years ago and all of a sudden there was a $407,000 loan on it…it rented for a period; has sat vacant for several months and NOW is in foreclosure! It was “purchased” by a “relocation company”, then evidently transferred to an individual, who tried to sell it for the value on the “new mortgage loan” of $407,000. Where did all that cash go? In someone’s UNETHICAL pocket! How many other “foreclosures” of this type are out there; not to mention rewarding those who lived in all of these “interest only” mortgaged homes to be “able” to afford to live in a little more luxury than they could really afford? For the past several years we were inundated (as were our grown children) with offers of attractive “mortgage” funds that would free our “equity” in our paid for homes.Home values escalated in a false economy…now those who bit the apple are in hot water with mortgages they cannot pay for and in homes that were “inflated” in value to get cash to spend eleswhere. We are REWARDING GREED and BAD JUDGEMENT….a few other names for “SIN” (that ugly word that is not P.C to use. People don’t really even know WHAT sin and unethical conduct is anymore. We all “rationalize”…and we all should know that word means a “RATION-of-LIES”. Christian or Not, we all have become accustomed to and many participate in the “new” culture moors.
When will our churches begin to teach what is NOT politically correct….and “feed” those seekers the truth from God’s Word. There are a lot of us who believe that when we Christians began to water down God’s Message and soft pedal the “Ten Rules”…I mean “SUGGESTIONS” for living a righteous life….we were giving the nod to lifestyles we are now paying for…not just monetarily; but health, happiness and being a nation under God. Personally, we think our grandchildren will grow up in a far more Socialistic Nation than we ever dreamed…and one where our Father God is not welcome.
By: John Kim | February 19, 2009 at 2:58 pm
What sucks is that there are a lot of ignorant people out there who don’t know this. They just want to be saved from their own mistakes they made in life. I new from ten years ago that debt was no good. Once I learned about the meaning of interest it changed my financial views for life. But people keep talking about building credit, now those people are neck deep in debt. I don’t feel any sympathy for them