{"id":2782,"date":"2009-01-05T22:27:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-06T03:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=2782"},"modified":"2009-01-06T01:36:15","modified_gmt":"2009-01-06T06:36:15","slug":"just-another-talking-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/01\/05\/just-another-talking-point\/","title":{"rendered":"just another Talking Point<\/em>…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Anti-Stimulus Crowd: The Fear of Success<\/a><\/strong>
by: Dean Baker<\/strong><\/a><\/font>, t·r·u·t·h·o·u·t<\/strong><\/font> | Perspective<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

At least some Republicans are starting to muster an anti-stimulus drive, claiming that President-elect Obama’s package will not help the economy. Their drive is centered on what they claim is a careful rereading of the history of the New Deal. According to their account, President Roosevelt’s policies actually lengthened the Great Depression. In their story, we would have been better off if we just left the market to adjust by itself. New Deal programs that directly employed people, or in other ways supported living standards, created an uncertain investment climate. They claim that this uncertainty slowed the process of market adjustment that was necessary for returning to high levels of employment.<\/div>\n

<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

"… we would have been better off if we just left the market to adjust by itself.<\/strong>" That was Herbert Hoover’s great idea. The crash in 1929 happened just seven months into his Administration. The Stock Market rallied for a couple of months, then began a steady decline until he left office [falling below the baseline from before the "bubble" of the roaring twentie<\/em>s]:<\/div>\n
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During his Administration’s wait for the Market to "adjust by itself<\/strong>," there were a few problems:<\/div>\n
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The Wagner Act, which created the legal framework for the union organizing drives of the era, stands out as being especially pernicious in their story. The Fair Labor Standards Act, which created the 40-hour workweek and established the first national minimum wage, also gets singled out for criticism. In this new reading of history, what most people consider the great successes of the New Deal simply worsened the Great Depression. In reality, any careful reading showed that the New Deal policies substantially ameliorated the effects of the Great Depression for tens of millions of people. The major economic failing of the New Deal was that President Roosevelt was not prepared to push the policies as far as necessary to fully lift the economy out of the Great Depression.<\/div>\n

Roosevelt was too worried about the whining of the anti-stimulus crowd that he confronted. He remained concerned about balancing the budget when the proper goal of fiscal policy should have been large deficits to stimulate the economy. Roosevelt’s policies substantially reduced the unemployment rate from the 25 percent peak when he first took office, but they did not get the unemployment rate back into single digits. It took the enormous public spending associated with World War II to fully lift the economy out of the depression. The lesson that economists take away from this experience is that we should be prepared to run very large deficits in order to give the economy a sufficient boost to generate self-sustaining growth.<\/p>\n

However, from the standpoint of Republicans, the more ominous lesson of the New Deal policies is that it left the Democrats firmly in power for more than 20 years. The Republicans did not regain the White House until 1952, 20 years after President Roosevelt was first elected. Imagine how terrifying the prospect of 20 years of Democratic presidencies must be for the current generation of Republican leaders. This would mean that they would not retake the White House until 2028, just 20 years before the Social Security trust fund is first projected to face a shortfall…<\/p>\n

In short, we should realize that the main concern of some of those opposed to stimulus may not be that it will fail, but rather that it will succeed. Most of us don’t have the same set of concerns.<\/div>\n

<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul Krugman<\/strong><\/a> [due diligance…<\/strong><\/a>] worries that Republicans will oppose to the economic stimulus package because Keynesian Economics is so opposite from the Republican Party line. Here, Dean Baker<\/strong><\/a>, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research<\/strong> in Washington has another take on things. He thinks that the Republicans are afraid that Obama will suceed and usher in another half century of Democratic dominance of the government.<\/span><\/div>\n

In Krugman<\/strong>‘s model, the Republicans are thinking about what to do for the country, but they’re just wrong. In Baker<\/strong>‘s way of thinking, they’re thinking about the long term viability of their Party. I find myself thinking that both Krugman and Baker are giving the Republicans too much credit. I don’t think they think that much about what they’re doing. At least, not in that way. <\/p>\n

During the McCain Campaign, I was appalled by what the man said. I’ve always liked McCain, but during the Campaign, his negativity and irresponsibility shocked me. It had me asking, "Who is this person I thought I knew?" Since the Campaign, he has seemed tp me like his old self.  And that’s how the Republican Party has worked since Nixon days. – C.R.E.E.P.<\/strong><\/font>, Donald Segretti<\/strong><\/font>, Lee Atwater<\/strong><\/font>, Karl Rove<\/strong><\/font>, Steve Schmidt<\/strong><\/font>, Ken Starr<\/strong><\/font>, Dick Cheney<\/strong><\/font>, etc. They’ve had a formula – unrelenting contemptuous attack on anything the Democrats say or do. They destroyed Carter and wounded Clinton. There’s no reason to think they won’t try to do the same thing with Obama. This Republican Mythology about the New deal is just another Talking Point<\/em><\/strong><\/font>, nothing more. It’s all over Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and coming out of the mouths of the usual Republican suspects – always suffused with contempt and sarcasm. It’s what they do. I don’t think it has anything to do with the issues – it’s just how they finally got some power. "Lets everyone say the same thing over and over and maybe it will stick." How easily we forget: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A few may be thinking like Krugman or Baker describe. But mostly, Karl Rove or someone like him put together an F.D.R.\/New Deal Talking Point<\/strong><\/font> and got it out through whatever network they have to rapidly deploy these things. The reason to think about it this way is simple. If you follow Klugman’s or Baker’s logic, you argue with the content. If you follow the wisdom of Obama’s Campaign, you refute it once – then you point out that it’s just a Talking Point and ignore it except to talk about it being a Talking Point. Engaging a Republican Talking Point is "pointless." Calling them on their strategy is the "point." And taking them seriously is the biggest mistake of all. They aren’t…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Anti-Stimulus Crowd: The Fear of Success by: Dean Baker, t·r·u·t·h·o·u·t | Perspective At least some Republicans are starting to muster an anti-stimulus drive, claiming that President-elect Obama’s package will not help the economy. Their drive is centered on what they claim is a careful rereading of the history of the New Deal. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}