Why Does Obama/Democrats Lie About Gov´t Spending, When The New Deal Did Not Work?
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work....After eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started...and an enormous debt to boot." Henry Morgenthau Jr. — Secretary of the Treasury to President Franklin D. Roosevelt — and key architect of FDR’s New Deal.
(the unemployment rate for 1939 was higher than the unemployment rate for 1931)
May 9, 1939 - Morgenthau’s appearance at the House Ways and Means Committee.
AND LOOK AT EUROPE, IT IS COMPLETELY BANKRUPT AND THEY HAVE NO SOLUTION.... GOV´T SPENDING IS ONE BIG FAT LIE!!!!!
More Questions From This User See All
Answers & Comments
Hey, I remember this question from 2 weeks ago! Maybe you'll respond to me this time!
...Alright, you really want to have a historical argument. Let's have it.
1) Let's start with the dates. 1939 is hardly a good endpoint to compare to, but then, neither is 1931 a good starting point. Essentially, Morgenthau was judging the New Deal before it was finished, and comparing unemployment in 1939 to a random year in the past that supposedly proved his point. Unemployment was actually lower in 1939 than in 1932, still a general improvement, if not the dramatic one that Mogenthau wanted.
2) Let's look at Mongenthau. Morgenthau was an orthodox economist who opposed Keynesian economics and disapproved of some elements of Roosevelt's New Deal. He was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, as you said, but he opposed many elements of the New Deal. He was appointed to this role in 1934, and was quite vocal with his feelings about the program. I'd say that really calls his opinions on these matters into question.
3) Let's look at what happened in between the two dates. In 1937, we experienced another surge in unemployment. Huh, why'd that happen? Well, reflationary policy was a big part of the New Deal. In 1935, the Banking Act, which effectively raised reserve requirements, was passed, causing a monetary contraction that helped to thwart the recovery. That act was mainly the result of conservative backlash to the New Deal, and that huge upswing in unemployment made the New Deal far less of a success.
4) I think judging the New Deal is much more difficult than you make it out to be. Unemployment alone isn't the only standard to judge it by. The New Deal not only kept people employed, but it kept people who were unemployed from starving, and, perhaps most importantly, it kept the manufacturing industry in America open and functional. Imagine what would have happened if the Japanese had hit us at Pearl Harbor and most of our manufacturing industry was in disrepair. The huge surge to employment and the importance of our involvement in the war would, at the very least, have been delayed substantially. Getting out of the Great Depression would have similarly been delayed. The Allied effort would have been much more harried and difficult, and both the war on the Pacific and the one in Europe would have taken longer to complete.
Morgentau always disagreed with FDR... it's not shocking that he disagreed even afterward...
but a poll of economists, I think it was done by Wake Forrest if I remember correctly, said that around 60 percent of economists thought the new deal did help...
granted, that's not all economists, but it's more than enough to disprove some kind of comment calling the idea a lie...
Um....Europe hasn't been using Keynesian economics. We have, and we are in far better shape than they are.
Also, you're saying massive government expenditures during the New Deal didn't work, but even more massive government expenditures during the war did? Think about that a second.
Ask us this question when you grow up to be an American that loves his/her country . Until then shut it and shut it tight .