James R. Curry – 11/2/10

This page was last updated on November 2, 2010.

Doing nothing wasn’t an option; James R. Curry; Beaver County Times; November 2, 2010.

In his previous letter, Mr. Curry compared college-town bar-hopping to peaceful Tea Party rallies complete with families, children, and pets.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The seemingly endless TV ads whining, or sniveling, or expressing the bombastic outrage of Republican and other far-right propaganda over stimulus money and the so-called bailouts of the auto and banking industry pose one huge question.

“What would that group have done? What is clearly implied is that nothing should have been done.”

[RWC] Mr. Curry appears to believe following existing bankruptcy laws is “doing nothing.”

“Fine! What would have happened then? At least a 25-30 percent unemployment rate. Failed banks and insurance companies. No resources for commerce to operate.

“Please, critics, have the guts or brains to propose how you would have done it.”

[RWC] Mr. Curry and others who make this claim ignore the fact we already had bankruptcy laws in place to handle the mess. Those of us opposed to the bailouts simply wanted to allow our existing laws do their job.

Mr. Curry also ignores the fact what the Obama administration did is what FDR did. It didn’t work in FDR’s time and isn’t working now.

First, let’s go back to the Roaring ‘20s. Have you heard of the depression/recession of 1920-1921 [the last year of the Woodrow Wilson (a Progressive Democrat) administration]? Probably not, though most of us learned about the Roaring ‘20s. So how did we get from a depression/recession to the Roaring ‘20s? Presidents Warren G. Harding (R) and Calvin Coolidge (R) must have jacked up spending, taxes, and debt, right? Not even close. Using 1920 (the first year after World War I) as a base, the Harding/Coolidge administrations reduced spending 55% by 1927, reduced taxes 45% by 1925, and ran eight straight surpluses. According to the BLS, unemployment for 1923-1929 averaged 3.3%. Now you know why lefties like to brush over the 1920s; it provides proof Hoover/FDR/Obama “stimulus” programs don’t work but conservative principles do.

Now let’s go to “the Great Depression era.” Though a nominal member of the Republican Party (He once belonged to the Progressive Party and almost ran for office as a Democrat.), Herbert Hoover was a Progressive, like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR. Therefore, when faced with the 1929 stock market crash, Mr. Hoover reacted as a Progressive. The big difference between Messrs. Hoover and Roosevelt was FDR did a lot more of what Mr. Hoover started. Leftists would like us to believe the 1929 stock market crash caused the Great Depression. In truth, the “progressive” policies of the Hoover and FDR administrations took what should have been a short-term “normal” recession and turned it into a 10+-year Great Depression.

Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in May 1939, Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Treasury Secretary during the Great Depression 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.” Further, unemployment never got below 9.9% before the U.S. entered World War II.

In summary, the only thing that ended the Great Depression was World War II.

“Of course, there would have been bailouts and stimulus money -- just as Bush had already begun - only the poor and the middle-class would have fared much worse. The poor and middle-class also would have seen no reform effort of a totally failed health system.”

[RWC] By “reform effort,” Mr. Curry means a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly and the takeover of the student loan industry. Yes, the Obamacare bill included a federal government takeover of the student loan industry.