Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The real lessons of the New Deal

In the Keynesian orgy of spending and New Dealism going on - perhaps we should look back to 1939. From Rep. Dreier (R-CA) via C-Span,
The Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, in 1939, as we were tragically headed into the great World War II, and as we were, in large part because of the war, able to emerge from the Great Depression, had an amazing statement that he, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary, at the end of the Great Depression in 1939, in his testimony provided before the House Ways and Means Committee. And in that, and Mr. Speaker, I commend this to my colleagues. He said,
``We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I say, after 8 years of the administration,'' that being the Roosevelt administration, ``we have just as much unemployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot.''
What an incredible statement that was made by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary in 1939. And the last line, Mr. Speaker, an enormous debt to boot, of course, brings to mind the fact that in 1939, the American people and financial interests in this country were financing that debt.



Hat tip via DennisMillerRadio.

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