The Great Depression kicked in with a stock market crash in 1929. Unemployment soared to 25%, In 1932, destitute World War One vets camped out in DC, so Herbert Hoover had Douglas MacArthur and his troops drive them out. Hoover counted on the economy to fix itself. It didn’t. After one term, he was replaced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
When FDR took office, he juiced things up with the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps. Those who wanted the market to fix itself hated it, dubbing FDR, “That man in the White House.” But things improved and when the U.S.A. started gearing up for World War Two, government spending soared, and with war impending, the only squawkers were Isolationists and German-American Bundists. They went silent after Pearl Harbor. During WW2, it was patriotic to pay taxes.
After the war, Americans were hungry for everything from applesauce to automobiles and the economy grew. Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, followed by “stagflation,” which combined inflation with low economic growth, followed in 1973-1975 by a recession. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, and we had another recession, 1981-1983. Bill Clinton grew the economy and wiped out the deficit, so fat dumb and happy voters elected George W. Bush who spent the Clinton surplus, ran up a huge deficit, and brought on a depression that is still with us. Battered voters tossed out another Republican for a Democrat.
Is nothing to be learned from the fact that each economic disaster has come with a Republican administration? Coincidence, or do their policies always sour the free market they so loudly claim to worship?
But if voters haven’t learned, Republican pols have. Instead of retreating into the shadows for a few years while Democrats repair the damage, they are trying to wreck the economy with a Democratic administration in office. From inept bunglers to malicious saboteurs.
VP, Joe Biden, was in a closed meeting, no recording secretary, no audio, but someone floated a rumor that he described the Tea Party as “terrorists.” Holding the country hostage to an economic debacle, is certainly an act of terrorism. But the mere rumor has Bachmann climbing the walls with her hair on fire, as clear an admission of terrorism as anyone needs.
When FDR took office, he juiced things up with the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps. Those who wanted the market to fix itself hated it, dubbing FDR, “That man in the White House.” But things improved and when the U.S.A. started gearing up for World War Two, government spending soared, and with war impending, the only squawkers were Isolationists and German-American Bundists. They went silent after Pearl Harbor. During WW2, it was patriotic to pay taxes.
After the war, Americans were hungry for everything from applesauce to automobiles and the economy grew. Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, followed by “stagflation,” which combined inflation with low economic growth, followed in 1973-1975 by a recession. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, and we had another recession, 1981-1983. Bill Clinton grew the economy and wiped out the deficit, so fat dumb and happy voters elected George W. Bush who spent the Clinton surplus, ran up a huge deficit, and brought on a depression that is still with us. Battered voters tossed out another Republican for a Democrat.
Is nothing to be learned from the fact that each economic disaster has come with a Republican administration? Coincidence, or do their policies always sour the free market they so loudly claim to worship?
But if voters haven’t learned, Republican pols have. Instead of retreating into the shadows for a few years while Democrats repair the damage, they are trying to wreck the economy with a Democratic administration in office. From inept bunglers to malicious saboteurs.
VP, Joe Biden, was in a closed meeting, no recording secretary, no audio, but someone floated a rumor that he described the Tea Party as “terrorists.” Holding the country hostage to an economic debacle, is certainly an act of terrorism. But the mere rumor has Bachmann climbing the walls with her hair on fire, as clear an admission of terrorism as anyone needs.
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