Deal or No Deal: the Obamanistas FDR Fixation is a Prescription for Change of the Worst Kind

Texas Monthly

March 2009

By Fred Hink

I have yet to read Professor H.W. Brand’s history on FDR but if it reflects the so-called “review” by Michael Ennis, I doubt it’s worth the time. [“The New New Deal” January 2009] Objectivity certainly wasn’t achieved in this churlish worship at the altar of FDR.

Mr. Ennis seems hell-bent on explaining why massive governmental intervention and equity stakes in financial institutions isn’t socialism and if he’s holding up FDR’s socialism as a cure to Herbert Hoover’s laissez-fair approach that “drove” the United States into the Great Depression, then he should check his facts. Hoover was anything but laissez-fair and his “remedies” were carried on in FDR’s administration.

Our current economic woes can be blamed solely on government intervention with the Community Reinvestment Act – creator of the sub-prime fiasco – and high deficit spending by Bush and the Democratic Congress. Adding to the soup is our own desire for instant gratification financed through loan-shark credit cards. Under Reagan and then Clinton and the Republican Congress, taxes went down, government spending declined, government revenue rose and unemployment declined to historic levels while the economy boomed. These are facts that Mr. Ennis should check before declaring he isn’t a socialist and capitalism is the root cause of everything from Global Warming to dirty underwear.