Obama's *NEW* New Deal.
I was scanning through the paper today and I ran across an article on Obama's goals for the first part of his administration. Most of it came across as the same platitudes and wishing that you'd expect from any incoming President. But one idea was different.
The idea? To sign a piece of legislation, on his inauguration day, January 20th, 2009, which would create a set of new public works programs - a *NEW* New Deal, if you will. I must admit, I have two very specific problems with such a program.
First, as anyone who's studied the Great Depression and Franklin Delano Rooseveldt's terms in office understands, the original New Deal programs were some of the worst-thought-out programs ever hatched, and they may have been the major factor in lengthening the Great Depression and its aftermath. If you take even the most cursory look at the New Deal, you soon come to realize that only World War II and the massive build-up of our wartime economy "solved" it.
Yet this is what President-Elect Obama is urging Congress to enact - a 'jobs' program that will derail much of our current economy in favor of public-dole jobs. Not the best of thinking, in my humble opinion.
Second, this 'program' is supposed to be an 'economic stimulus' package - a 'bailout' if you will. And it is supposed to come hard on the heels of several earlier 'bailouts'. Can anyone remember the bailout program for the home mortgage disaster? You know, the one rushed through Congress by our very own (thankfully leaving) Treasury Secretary Paulson? Heck! Can anyone *forget* the bait-and-switch pulled on the American taxpayers by Paulson? I can't. And he did the same "Rush! Rush! Rush!" scare tactic to get his famous three-line bill passed without question or examination. Didn't turn out too well, did it?
Yet here we have Obama urging the same haste and ill-planning for an even bigger, more sweeping set of stimulus packages.
My question is this: Can we afford to let Congress get swept up in the *NEW* New Deal frenzy? I think not. In fact, I urge you to write to your Congresscritters and warn them that a "Yes" on Obama's NND is a "Yes" on recall initiatives for these same Congresscritters.
The idea? To sign a piece of legislation, on his inauguration day, January 20th, 2009, which would create a set of new public works programs - a *NEW* New Deal, if you will. I must admit, I have two very specific problems with such a program.
First, as anyone who's studied the Great Depression and Franklin Delano Rooseveldt's terms in office understands, the original New Deal programs were some of the worst-thought-out programs ever hatched, and they may have been the major factor in lengthening the Great Depression and its aftermath. If you take even the most cursory look at the New Deal, you soon come to realize that only World War II and the massive build-up of our wartime economy "solved" it.
Yet this is what President-Elect Obama is urging Congress to enact - a 'jobs' program that will derail much of our current economy in favor of public-dole jobs. Not the best of thinking, in my humble opinion.
Second, this 'program' is supposed to be an 'economic stimulus' package - a 'bailout' if you will. And it is supposed to come hard on the heels of several earlier 'bailouts'. Can anyone remember the bailout program for the home mortgage disaster? You know, the one rushed through Congress by our very own (thankfully leaving) Treasury Secretary Paulson? Heck! Can anyone *forget* the bait-and-switch pulled on the American taxpayers by Paulson? I can't. And he did the same "Rush! Rush! Rush!" scare tactic to get his famous three-line bill passed without question or examination. Didn't turn out too well, did it?
Yet here we have Obama urging the same haste and ill-planning for an even bigger, more sweeping set of stimulus packages.
My question is this: Can we afford to let Congress get swept up in the *NEW* New Deal frenzy? I think not. In fact, I urge you to write to your Congresscritters and warn them that a "Yes" on Obama's NND is a "Yes" on recall initiatives for these same Congresscritters.
posted by Derek A Benner | 2:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home