At lunch yesterday, just hours before the President’s speech to the Congress proposing the outlines for a reconstruction of the American economy enabled by Government action, a leading Republican prepared the way by providing some comic relief:
“We’re advocating that Congress freeze all federal spending immediately,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Conference, during a Tuesday luncheon at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “People out there are hurting, and they understand what you do when times are tough. You make hard choices. Today House Republicans are urging the Democrats to do the same. We think it’s time that the Democrats put our money where their mouth is.” (italics added)
Is this guy kidding? Does he ever think about what he is saying? Has he had a new thought since 1929? Is he aware of the economic events of the past six months? Does this Hooverian want everyone living in Hoovervilles, while all the single family housing is vacant? Does he really think that working Americans prefer to be unemployed for years to come, rather than to have Government Programs that will result in a paycheck for them, and 4.6 percentage points of higher taxes for well-off folks like him and his other Hooverian compatriots? He’s lucky the stimulus package wasn’t three times as large, and won’t be funded with an additional 10 point tax hike for people making above $500,000 per year.
And here’s another one. In Bobby Jindal’s reply to the President, he emphasized that the way for Washington to lead was “to empower you the American people . . . “ and then he proceeded to call for the Hooverians favorite nostrum, lower taxes. Just how lower taxes, and less unemployment insurance would empower unemployed Americans, who have little income or wealth to speak of, to do anything at all except starve, is a real mystery — the kind that accompanies a mantra, rather than a policy proposal. On the other hand, those same Americans might certainly feel empowered by increased unemployment insurance, entirely new jobs created as a direct or indirect effect of Federal investment programs, and a new National Health Insurance Program that enabled them to get care when they’re sick, and to help them to stay healthy in the first place.
As Jindal says “Americans can do anything.” Well, one of the things we can do is to finally understand that the Republicans haven’t had a new idea since 1929. They are still the party of Hoover – still the Hooverians, (or perhaps the Hooverites) whose thinking is frozen, who fiddled while the United States sank into The Great Depression; and who are fixin’ to fiddle us into another one, in the hope that if they succeed they’ll be able to blame Obama, pick up the pieces, and get back the power they lost over the past two years.
To Be Continued