New Deal....Same Old Deal?

Reading an entry over at NROnline regarding the current course being followed by president Zero in his attempt to "lead" the country.  Burton Folsom is a professor at Hilsdale College in Michigan.  That alone tells you that he actually has to work and produce scholarly thoughts on matters he teaches. he opined on Zero's latest foray into academia at the commencement speech at University of Michigan wherein the propsotioton that goverment intervention was a good approach to a nations problems was posited.  Mr. Folsom points out the folly of Zero's logic with several pointed facts.

On the Great Depression, government intervention did not rescue the nation. The U. S. had more than 20 percent unemployment in 1939, toward the end of FDR’s second term. On the contrary, government intervention — through the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, the Farm Board, and the income tax hike to 63 percent on top incomes — triggered the depression, and FDR perpetuated it through failed stimulus packages and higher taxes.





Having established the error of Zero's ways, Professor Folsom wonders if the administration of Ivy League dilettantes really has any grasp of history.
 
Because President Obama, and many others in his administration, do not understand American history, we seem destined to repeat it. President Obama addressed his historical confusion on a college campus; when a better and more accurate version of the American past reaches those campuses, we can raise up a new generation that appreciates the Founders’ dedication to limited government and individual liberty.

This discussion lead me to a book by Professor Folsom released in paperback in 2009 and sitting on my shelf.  New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America by Burton W. Folsom.

I would encourage you to read it yourself.   Several comments from one reader provide insight into the book and the FDR legacy.  Insight that many a liberal today continue to confuse and otherwise fail to adequately comprehend.  FDR was not the savior you have heard him to be.

Folsom also emphasizes the crushing tax burdens imposed by the New Deal. Under FDR, the highest income tax rate was 79%, meaning that four out of five earned dollars was confiscated by the government! According to Folsom, FDR also seriously entertained the idea of imposing a 99.5% income tax rate on all who earned over $100,000 in income. Flippantly justifying this, FDR joked that nobody in his administration would ever make that kind of money. Under FDR, the national debt grew more in the 1930s than it grew in the previous 150 years of the existence of the United States. Putting it in other words, Folsom indicates that if $100/minute was deposited into an account the day Columbus discovered North America up until FDR took office, there would not be enough money in this account to fully defray the costs of the New Deal.

The last major point that I will reiterate is the extensive level of corruption of the FDR administration. According to Folsom's research, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) offered large government handouts to whichever lobbyists ingratiated themselves most with the administration. FDR used the WPA to make or break the careers of public officials, depending on whether they supported him. This corruption rose to such an overt and perverse level that officials at the WPA used to cheerfully greet callers with "Democratic headquarters!" The Hatch Act, which forbids government employees from using their office for political activity, was passed in response to these activities. 

Compare these activities with policies you see being enacted today by president Zero and his minions.  Two things will occur, one, you will be convinced that the current administration does not know history and we are, indeed, doomed to repeat it AND two, there is hope that just as the country recovered from the raw deal of FDR, it to shall recover from the trials & tribulations of our current man-child president.

Bless this country.