Stimulus

We’re getting another wave of revisionism. Republicans are saying, “F.D.R. didn’t get us out of The Depression, the war did.”

Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933- the worst year of the depression. His New Deal led to 8% growth every year of his administration. Things were so bad it did take the huge spending of the war to do enough but F.D.R.’s programs did as much as was humanly possible barring a war.

Is the argument that war is good?

We went off the gold standard in 1933 too. Countries that stayed experienced at least 15% decline every year after while the countries that went off the standard grew. For a better view of this check out http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/12/the_gold_standa.html

The republicans keep saying cutting taxes is the stimulus we need. Not only has the last 8 years disproved this but from the end of W.W.II until 1970 we had the highest corporate taxes and the strongest economic engine ever as a nation. This is easily borne out by a little research online.

The senate finally compromised on a bill for the stimulus yesterday. Needles to say the things they threw out blow my mind. Electronic medical infrastructure has been cut. This would save us millions. It would make medical records available instantly anywhere.

I have a feeling deaths caused by doctors’ poor penmanship when writing prescriptions might disappear too. It might be a little off topic but I’ve always thought they should be held accountable if they’re arrogant enough not to care about their own handwriting.

They also threw out money for a general fund for education. Fortunately they held on to the Pell money. Education has always been a good investment.