George Will: ‘The First New Deal Didn’t Work’
George Will: ‘The First New Deal Didn’t Work’
Economists on both the left and right broadly agree that the need for stimulative government spending is necessary to prevent a further collapse of the global economic system — just as the New Deal and the deficit spending of World War II restored the health of the global economy in the last century.
This morning on ABC’s This Week, conservative columnist George Will echoed the false right-wing meme that FDR’s New Deal policies made the Depression worse:
Before we go into a new New Deal, can we just acknowledge that the first New Deal didn’t work?
Watch it:
As Nobel-laureate Paul Krugman wrote recently in the New York Times, “There’s a whole intellectual industry, mainly operating out of right-wing think tanks, devoted to propagating the idea that F.D.R. actually made the Depression worse. So it’s important to know that most of what you hear along those lines is based on deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. The New Deal brought real relief to most Americans.”
Krugman observed that the true short-comings of the New Deal policies resulted from the fact that they were not bold enough over the short-term:
[T]he truth is that the New Deal wasn’t as successful in the short run as it was in the long run. And the reason for F.D.R.’s limited short-run success, which almost undid his whole program, was the fact that his economic policies were too cautious. [...]
In short, Mr. Obama’s chances of leading a new New Deal depend largely on whether his short-run economic plans are sufficiently bold. Progressives can only hope that he has the necessary audacity.
Brad DeLong offers this chart to emphasize the value of the New Deal:
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Before we go into a new New Deal, can we just acknowledge that the first New Deal didn’t work?
– - We could do that, but it would be incorrect.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pmDidn’t Krugman explain this directly to Will’s face last week? Why, yes he did.
I love how wingnuts just ignore all contrary evidence and plow right on as if nobody was debunking them left and right. It takes truly breathtaking amounts of intellectual chutzpah to even try to pull this off on a consistent basis.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pmIs George Will able to think any differently as years go by?
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pmHis opinions are always the same – no matter what the circumstance – and he is wrong with increasing frequency! He is more comfortable advocating rightwing philosophy, regardless that the philosophy has not been effective (except for perhaps the extremely wealthy, of which class Will is a member).
What the elite fail to keep in mind is that the nation is dependent upon a successful middle class in order to keep the wealthy at the top of the order – they have deliberately undermined the middle class, and therefore their own support.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 pmGeorge Will turns deaf ears to economists who point out his failed philosophy, as he has demonstrated so often in recent weeks.
The thing that really bugs me is his claim to be an “intellectual” just because he likes to use overcomplicated vocabulary and grammar to make a simple point.
If somebody presents an effective argument contrary to your premise one week, you can’t go out and ignore that argument, restate your premise as if it never happened, and then claim to be engaging in any form of intellectual debate.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:15 pmGeorge Will is an idiot, a pseudo-intellectual nerdy idiot, but idiot nonetheless
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pmKeeping in mind George Will voted twice for The Worst President Ever™.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:24 pmThe lying liars have to start “catapulting the propaganda” now.
Folks like wills boldly state the lies and then the rest of the media will pick them up too, creating an “echo chamber.”
Trying to argue with the propaganda machine is pointless – it isn’t based on truth or logic.
This is the crowd that believes they can create their own reality and until we change the dialog from the lying liars to the very structure of the corporate media, they will continue to succeed with their double-speak.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 pmStick with baseball, George.
¶ AIO
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:29 pmAmerica destroyed much of the world’s manufacturing capacity in WWII. Germany and Japan had little industry left when they surrendered.
Decades of American growth and prosperity arose from this situation. Ironically, an American taught the Japanese about quality manufacturing. Business and governmental leaders ignore Dr. Deming’s teachings to this day. For that America pays a heavy price.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:30 pmthe reason rapepublicans piss and moan about the new deal is it essentially killed the rapepublican party for twenty years. bunch of thumbsuckers
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:33 pmI don’t think the New Deal made the Depression worse. There are reasons to criticize the New Deal, but that isn’t one of them.
I DO think the evidence is pretty clear that WW II ended the Depression, however, not the New Deal.
I read an article on Obama’s proposals to spend between 150 – 500 billion on job creation programs that will build infrastructure and alternative energy. This seems like a good plan, though where the money will come from is not clear; neither is the exact price tag.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 pmElBruce Says:
Didn’t Krugman explain this directly to Will’s face last week? Why, yes he did.
This is America, the land that history forgot…
There is no “last week.” No “yesterday.” Just “now.”
And what Will says now, he is perfectly confident no one will remember he said in another 24 hours, ever if there’s tape.
Murkins only look at the “pichers,” they don’t read or listen…
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:47 pmIt’s one thing to disagree with the New Deal on ideological grounds (the old right and classical liberals clung to lassez faire to the bitter end)…but the New Deal did exactly what it was created to do: lift America out of the Depression. WWII was the clincher, but the manufacturing efforts that saved our asses (and those of our Western European and East Asian allies) abroad and at home were only made possible through the enormous gov’t intervention of the New Deal.
Also, George Will had proven himself irrelevant ago. I’d much rather hear this argument from a conservative with a backbone and principles, such as Pat Buchnanan.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 pmFDR had a (D) after his name. That’s all a modern GOoPer needs to pronounce everything he did a failure. They would rather gargle ground glass and kerosene than admit a Democrat ever did ANYTHING right.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:59 pmAlso, George Will had proven himself irrelevant ago. I’d much rather hear this argument from a conservative with a backbone and principles, such as Pat Buchnanan.
Nixon administration speechwriter, confidant of Haldeman, Erlichman, who reversed his criticism of Palin within 24 hours?
That Pat Buchanan?
Riiight.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 pmWhat Will means when he says the New Deal didn’t work is that it precluded Fascism from taking root in the U.S., presumably with Prescott Bush as its leader.
Next thing you know, we had unions and soshul sikyoority and uppity nigrahs and mescans, an absolute nightmare in Will’s world.
OT – ya think there’ll be very few newborns named “George” fer a while?
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 pmConservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.
–Benjamin Disraeli
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 pmThey keep will as a baseball “expert” so that they can dust him off to “catapult the propaganda” to the morons that think he actually has something to say.
But he is just the start – just wait til the “echo chamber” gets a hold of this.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 pmi think george will needs to remove that rug and let some air circulate around his head…
i about choked when he stated that tax breaks for eco cars would be bad… bet he thought those tax breaks for hummers and suvs were a great idea at that time…
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:02 pmmy local daily ran this Rich Lowry piece (of crap) the other day:
Infrastructure Spending to Nowhere
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/11/infrastructure_spending_to_now.html
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pmkaty Says:
i think george will needs to remove that rug and let some air circulate around his head…
Did you see him and Donaldson last week? It was like an infomercial for the Hair Club, with the camera cutting back and forth between the brunette and blond product models.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pmkaty Says:
i about choked when he stated that tax breaks for eco cars would be bad… bet he thought those tax breaks for hummers and suvs were a great idea at that time…
Man, I’d sure like to see a sweet tax break for the purchase of a GM Volt when they come out in 2010. They look really cool, but $40,000….ouch.
If part of whatever bailout the carmakers get included a subisdy for consumers who purchase green cars it’d be win-win-win for consumbers, GM and the environment/energy independent future.
Hey Mr. Podesta, pass that along to the Big Guy, willya?
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:12 pmmotorfingaz Says:
Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.
–Benjamin Disraeli
——————-
A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm—- Benjamin Disraeli
And this guy calls himself an expert on history? This is nothing more than an ideological cloud sent up to distract from essential progressive policies that worked back then sand will work to get us out of the current mess.
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 pmI thought Bob Kutner batted down this argument offered by George Will (and Rich Lowry)….that Spending on Infrastructure takes too long to help the current situation.
While it is true that WELL Planned infrastructure Investments take Time to complete, there ARE NOW Planned projects that States and Localities are CANCELLING of POSTPONING from lack of Funds. There are also Govt. Employees that are being let Go for the same reason.
Kutner’s point is that just Aiding States and Localities with Federal Assistance will have an IMMEDIATE effect on Jobs and the Economy…by Not making the situation Worse.
Lowrey is correct that if a massive Infrastructure Investment is turned into a poorly Planned Congressional PORKFEST, things will not Improve.
I’m Betting that Obama’s leadership will prevent this from Happening.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 pmmy local chevy dealership has a new 09 Traverse in the showroom… they call it a “crossover”… still a huge road hog…
i asked about gas mileage – “25 mpg!” the salesman said…
“woo hoo. back to the 80s” says i…
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 pmmeant to link that: http://www.chevrolet.com/2009traverse/
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 pmImagine that. Republicans only wanting to help Republicans. Nobody could have predicted that.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 pmBadger Says:
Lowrey is correct that if a massive Infrastructure Investment is turned into a poorly Planned Congressional PORKFEST, things will not Improve.
I’m Betting that Obama’s leadership will prevent this from Happening.
Well, here you have put your very finger on it, or paw in your case.
Do I trust Congress to NOT do what you describe and feather their own nests? Sadly, no I do not.
And the ONLY way Obama can stop it is by publicly holding their feet to the fire and veto the crap out of spending bills that are pork laden. He has the charisma and public support to smoke Pelosi and Reed if they allow the stimulus package to become government fiefdoms like the Big Dig in Boston that balloon out of budget, take longer to build than promised and end up being shoddily constructed when they ARE finished.
Condidering the Dems massive advantage in Congress, that will be very hard for Obama to do. But it is what a Great Leader would do – let us see what happens.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:37 pmwow: I just realize that will’s initials are G.W. Another G.W.!
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:40 pmCrossovers are a legacy of Auto Industry Lobbying and the CAFE Standards.
Crossovers are just the latest incarnation of the Old Family Station Wagon. They are built on a Car Platform, unlike SUVs which are built on a Truck Platform.
WHY? Because Auto Industry Lobbyists got Trucks to be EXEMPT from Cafe Standards…and SUVs right along with them.
Now it is the Cost Of Gasoline, and not Federal CAFE standards that have Auto Buyers concerned.
Karma.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:41 pmThanks. You got a lot of educatin’ in in a short space. This vey useful post is featured on http://www.RealityChex.com
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:41 pmAt 67 years old George Will knows that FDR’s plan worked he was born before the end and benefited. He is doing the best he can to make Americans think Obama is wrong. He makes the Republicans proud but makes himself look like he’s lost it.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 pmCheck out Crooks and Liars’ latest Cavuto vs. Stein video.
The Conservative Crackup, while entertaining, wasn’t worth the $2 trillion/4500/500,000 dead price tag.
Ben Stein is repellent, but in this case, also right.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 pmKeltoi at Night Says:
And the ONLY way Obama can stop it is by publicly holding their feet to the fire and veto the crap out of spending bills that are pork laden.
There’s another way.
I know its tough to pronounce, so let me help (just sound it out):
A-d-m-i-n-i-s-t-r-a-t-i-o-n R-e-r-e-g-u-l-a-t-i-o-n.
After 8 years of Bush, regulation is a strange concept, I know. But voters have decided they want more, so you’ll probably have to get used to saying the words, sometime soon.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:49 pmDoesn’t this fall into Interior dept. hands?
barfly Says:
There’s another way.
I know its tough to pronounce, so let me help (just sound it out):
A-d-m-i-n-i-s-t-r-a-t-i-o-n R-e-r-e-g-u-l-a-t-i-o-n.
Would not Congress have to approve any such? Or is this something that could be done by Executive Order? And can you regulate pork out of spending bills? How would that work?
After 8 years of Bush, regulation is a strange concept, I know. But voters have decided they want more, so you’ll probably have to get used to saying the words, sometime soon.
Doesn’t this fall into Interior dept. hands?
Probably also Energy and Transportation, depending on which infrastructure projects your are talking about.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:55 pmKeltoi, you’re going to have to step up your game if you’re going to continue to claim to be a troll. You’re entirely too reasonable today.
You’re behaving like a troll as much as George Will is behaving like an intellectual.
So quit it.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:04 pmralph the wonder llama Says:
Keltoi, you’re going to have to step up your game if you’re going to continue to claim to be a troll. You’re entirely too reasonable today.
You got it, old Buddy!
Okay, here is the problem with the New Deal. It wasn’t economic (though again, I call it a push at Depression fighting, the War was far more important and I think that was one of the reasons that FDR steered us into it) but as an earlier poster noted, ideological and political.
Here is the basic problem: Government almost never surrenders powers once it has acquired them. This is a great truism of history. Prior to the Civil War, State Governments were co-equal to the Feds; afterward, the 9th and 10th Amendment are about as relevant as the 3rd amendment banning the Quartering Act. And we will never go back.
Likewise the New Deal. FDR made the relationship between the citizen and the state so much more inextricably entwined that the Founders would have been stunned that We the People accepted it – yet we did, and there is no going back.
Rahm Emmanuel said the other day that we can’t let this crisis go by without taking advantage of it, that crisis allows you to do things you didn’t think you could do before.
That was certainly true of FDR and the New Deal. He seized the opportunities presented by both 1929 and 1941 to do things you never thought government could do, not least of which was serve 4 consecutive terms as President. Praise the Gods that practice was banned by Constitutional Amendment.
Now, so far, I haven’t seen Obama do anything radical – hell, he isn’t even President yet and he seems to be pretty centrist in his cabinet appointments thus far, excepting Tom Daschle and that one is very telling. But we have a crisis on our hands, and meanwhile TIME magazine has Obama dressed up as FDR and calling for a New New Deal.
Creeping Socialism is not an entirely invalid concept, in short. Look at Britain and France. If that is what you want, fine. But I don’t think it is in the tradtion of American history.
There! How is that for some red meat boilerplate Trollishness?
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:20 pmBack in a bit, very nice weather in Idaho today, a rarity this time of year, so go ahead and tear me up Ralph, I’ll check in later.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 pmYou can trust them to not waste money as the last 8 years of republicans have…..at least most of it will benifit some Americian somewhere and not the rich ones….
Not only that but good managers of our economy are entitled to spend some money frivilously, you know on things like education, health care, stuff like that.
They can hardly do worse than the republicans in any era you choose.
It almost sounds like you want to say the republicans and democrats are just alike in this respect……I beg to differ.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 pmFor George Will to concede that the New Deal worked, he would have to admit that his entire conservative ideology was wrong, and conservatives never do this. So-called “intellectuals” like Will would like us to think that the Republican party just needs to get back to its ideological roots (expounded by experts like, oh, George Will) and back away from the Taliban fundies, so that conservatism will be restored to its former glories and the country can get back on track.
But Republicans have demonstrated that conservative economics, ideology and sociology just do not work because they’re based on false premises. George Will and his ilk are never going to admit that, any more than did the conservative ideologues of the 1920s and 1930s, the same people who sniped at FDR for decades and did their level best to thwart the progress of the New Deal.
George Will is urbane and well-spoken, making a startling contrast to the Hannitys, O’Reillys and Limbaughs on stage, but he is no less wrong than they are and no less morally bankrupt.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pmWill is a classic pseudo-intellectual know-nothing, a pompous gasbag who fancies himself an expert in both economics and Constitutional law, when it is obvious that he doesn’t know jack about either subject.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:27 pmKeltoi:
Creeping Socialism is not an entirely invalid concept, in short. Look at Britain and France. If that is what you want, fine. But I don’t think it is in the tradtion of American history.
Uh, you just attempted to demonstrate that creeping socialism was in the tradition of American history — all through the 30s and well into the 40s. One could easily argue that the real anomaly has been the repeated attempts by robber barons and pseudo-aristocracies to control the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pmfound on the google news page… the russian p.o.v….
gotta see it:
Video: New US Administration to clean up the mess RussiaToday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffD2NA8BfU&eurl=http://news.google.com/
boosh is a bad joke…
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 pmoh, and i had to run to the grocery store…
couldn’t help but notice this:
http://www.globemagazine.com/
poor dumbya…
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:42 pmEven though FDR was largely confined to a wheel chair, I’d bet he could kick the crap out of George Bush and George Will any day of the week.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:51 pmWhy yes, George: let’s all agree to your absurd revisionist assertion.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:24 pmDumb Question – wasn’t the New Deal so successful that FDR got elected for 4 terms (and potentially more if he hadn’t died in office) ? And wasn’t his death in office part of the reason that presidents are not limited to 2 terms ??????
Of course, to add some thought – it may be more correct to say FDR’s first 2 terms were on the success of the New Deal and the second 2 were also influenced by us being at war and our success in the war.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 pmAs gummitch said, the tradition of American history includes the robber barons. It also includes only white Protestant land-owning males having the right to vote. It also includes a top tax rate of 90% under Eisenhower, public schools, public universities, public roads, public libraries, public firemen, public law enforcement, public transportation, public roads, Social Security, Medicare, etc., etc.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:44 pmI was thinking just this AM – the FDR New Deal had a lot of works for the public good. Poet Laureates for building culture. But also a lot of infrastructure – roads, parks, public buildings, etc. that are still used to this day.
Building infrastructure is a great investment. Hearing that Obama is thinking about public works that build energy / tech infrastructure sounds like a good idea to me.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:46 pmKeltoi:
Would not Congress have to approve any such? Or is this something that could be done by Executive Order? And can you regulate pork out of spending bills? How would that work?
Did Congress have to approve of Bush’s de-regulation?
Obama now has the Bully Pulpit, executive order, and signing statements, as tools to implement his objectives, and agenda.
If he decides to impose greater, or more stringent standards than are mandated in legislation, Bush has already established precedent, in that regard. If Congress then re-writes the legislation to avoid the signing statement waltz, the President can use the Bully Pulpit to force his prospective opponents into explaining their reasons for hampering his efforts, and to put his policies in the best possible light, for the American people to judge. He can apply pressure from the top down administratively, or from the bottom up, with the bully pulpit, and voters complaining to their representatives.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:16 pmThe Bully Pulpit will be used much more sparingly, I predict, than was the case with Bush. That’s why he’s trying for a by-partisan cast of characters: to obviate the need to employ the negative tactics preferred by Bush and Cheney.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:21 pmObama Will Get Stimulus Bill First Day, Democrats Say (Update1)
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:22 pmBloomberg - 1 hour ago
By Daniel Whitten Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — Congress will send President-elect Barack Obama an economic stimulus package the day he takes office Jan. 20, two Democratic lawmakers said today.
barfly Says:
Obama now has the Bully Pulpit, executive order, and signing statements, as tools to implement his objectives, and agenda.
Aha! So now signing statements are good! Proving the truth of my post at 39.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pmKeltoi:
Would not Congress have to approve any such? Or is this something that could be done by Executive Order? And can you regulate pork out of spending bills?
Congress would use CBO scoring to determine what is appropriate, to, well, appropriate, while the President would rely on OMB numbers. If the OMB’s (highly-subjective, in the past administration) estimates are substantially lower, the administration would have his congressional surrogates soon trumpeting his case on C-Span.
In this climate, opponents would be on the political hot-seat, to make a stronger case for increased spending.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pmFDR was president for 12 years one month, one week and one day. What transpired in that short period is an inspiration to all Americans who witnessed it. The last seven years one month, 3 days, 6 hours and 38 minutes have been a travesty!
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:37 pm‘one month’ s/b ‘ten months’, sorry.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:39 pmTo be honest, I expect only one thing from Obama. I expect him to make logical, reasoned, decisions based on real world events. Something his predecessor has rarely, if ever, done.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:39 pmOne thing that I think is very important:
Noam Chomsky said in 1995: “In the early 1970s, about 90% of capital in international exchanges was for investment and trade, 10% for speculation. By 1990, those figures had reversed, and a 1993 estimate is that only 5% is related to “real economic transactions” (Wilfried Guth of the Deutsche Bank, who argues further that these processes are undermining free trade, as do others).”
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 pmKeltoi:
Aha! So now signing statements are good! Proving the truth of my post at 39.
A tool is neither good nor bad. It’s the tool’s wielder (or non-wielder, depending upon circumstance) who must have conscience.
This had been a previously unexploited gray area in presidential perogative for some time. If this proves to be a presidential overreach, it will take more than one administration to do so. We must have a democratic calibration. We now know how far wrong one can go; we’ll have to wait and see if the use of signing statements is a bad idea, or simply one mis-used by a single president.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 pmYep, the first New Deal didn’t work. Millions never regained their lost jobs thus they failed to qualify for Social Security. The Tennessee Valley Authority never got beyond initial construction. The SEC was a fraud (OK, hold off on that one). The economy never recovered. We lost The War too.
Really, George, I expected you to have a far better memory. Then again I thought for sure you were an original member of the Old Right.
-AF
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:06 pmAndrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
George Will believes there should be no minimum wage. Why is he still on TV? Why do we care what he says? Regular people don’t matter–only very rich people.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 pmThe point has been made that it is no use arguing with these propaganda machines, and I agree, but here goes anyways.
George Will, only a rightwinger and richboy could sit and argue with what FDR did. People were hurting, out of work, some even selling their kids or abandoning them with richer folk hoping someone else could provide for them even if they could not. Who cares if you think the books could have looked better, FDR helped people.
His policies were a damn sight better than the rich-republican policies that GOT US in the mess to begin with. And they were better than anything the republicans came up with for 3 years after the crash before FDR got installed.
Obviously, George Will would complain if you hung him with a golden rope.
Another thing….WWII almost bankrupted America. It didn’t save us economically. All that spending on equipment that was basically WORTHLESS to our economy once the war was over. THe fact that the whole world was shot-up…and most of the other economies were destroyed or crippled…. That allowed us to take advantage of our new position.
And we used our NewDeal/WWII manufacturing prowess in the AFTERMATH of WWII that was so beneficial to our economy. WWII managed to kill off a large chunk of our population. Many, many more were crippled and in need of extra help. The GI bill for returning Vets was a great boon to the economy and middle class living conditions.
So, the War? It sure was a milestone, no getting around it’s effects. But a creator of wealth? No. Lots of things changed, lots of the future was altered by the War…but did WWII end the depression? How? Where did the WAR put 10k in every families purse, or how did the WAR suddenly make poor people healthy and wealthy? It prob. made some war profiteers wealthy. And it altered the landscape. But it did not put dollars in avg. americans pocket. It did not put a chicken in any pot. In fact, americans were scrimping and saving and rationing and tightening belts, and doing without the men of the family and getting their men killed and coming home crippled. So much of what we built and sweated for in that war ended up on a sea bottom or a shell crater…the War did not create prosperity or fix our fiscal problems.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 pmGeorge Will is another of the liars who is saying that we are center right and now he is repeating the old mantra that the New Deal was bad and did not work. That would be fine if they could admit also that Reaganomics, deregulation, and trickle down, supply economics is the reason for the most recent crash and economic disaster. The conservatives must lie to themselves. They must rewrite history because facts and reality are not friendly to them. The sooner they can accept the fact that they were wrong and now they are insignificant, the sooner they can begin the healing process. Conservatism is dead, it did not work.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 pmKeltoi at Night Says:
Creeping Socialism is not an entirely invalid concept
Which begs the question, what’s worse, creeping socialism where we all have a hand in making live better for everyone, or creeping oligarchy, where we all have to suffer for the benefit of a few?
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Warren Buffet
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 pmRead Paul Krugman’s book “The Conscience of a Liberal”. It details the growth of the middle class from the ‘30 through today.
We babyboomers have enjoyed the benefits of all the liberal values that were born in the New Deal. It was the years of the Robber Barons and their greed that put our country into the Great Depression then, and it’s the greed of the oligarchs today that has run our country into a ditch very much as what was done in the years leading up to the Great Depression.
I don’t know what you think, but I was raised to believe that while we are here it is our duty to leave the world a better place that it was when we arrived. I was able to succeed based on the help and work of those that fought for the equality, education, and the respect for the work of every man and woman and the belief that as I was better off than my parents, my kids and grandkids should be better off than I.
We’ve lost that here in America. Maybe it’s Globalization, where the value of one’s work is being compared with workers around the world, or maybe it all the cheap crap coming in that we are buying up and consuming.
Either way, I worry about what kind of future and opportunities my kids and grandkids will have.
How about getting back to the New Deal or creating a New New Deal?
“If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.” Warrren Buffet
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pmWell, as some people say:
Where there’s a Will, there’s a braying jackass…
…who Will bray all the way to the glue factory.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 pmNew right wing meme:
November 24th, 2008 at 1:11 amThe New Deal didn’t end the Depression, WW2 did
therefore
We need a world war to get us out of our current economic mess
I suggest that George clear with Paul Krugman any comments regarding financial matters; it will save him a lot of pain.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:03 amFDR was without question the greatest president of the 20th century, and he ranks highly among all presidents as being worthy of respect, remembrance and emulation.
Any “failure” from the New Deal was still more of a success than what the George Will-types of that day would or could ever have accomplished. My only criticism of the New Deal is that it wasn’t aggressive enough to undo forever the parasitic form of capitalism that drove our economy into the ground then and is doing the same now.
I hope that Obama will take a page from FDR’s playbook and restore the sort of social programs (Work Progress Administration, etc.) that FDR used to put Americans back to work and to help them support their families.
It will take policies like those that brought us out of the Republican Great Depression of 1929 to resolve our current economic woes. Let’s hope that President Obama is able to get as much cooperation from Congress as he needs to push his agenda and get America back on track.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:19 amWhy anyone would listen to that bag of wind is puzzling? Why does the first question always go to Will, on the “This Week” show. I have learned to shut the T.V. off on Sunday morning, and take a long walk.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:53 amGeorge Will ….so smart that he’s stupid!!! This is the second week another panel guest made him look like a fool.
Keep it up ABC. I refuse to watch your show because of the slanted lies. It’s about time the public picks up on this and makes the nessessary changes to there information choices.
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com look for the ADDEMDUM which is the second part to this execellent documentory. Truth will help us understand.
Mr. Will’s …..we have the nessessary tools to disprove your BS. We can research what you say withiin minuites to see if your are lying or telling the truth. However the truth has been hard to come by for some time now.
YOU ARE NOT RELEVANT ANYMORE….THAT GOES FOR U2 COOKIE.
Time to retire.
Can someone please tell me why all these old farts are the ones doing these shows???? they are out of touch with what is really going on. Doesn’t any retire any more?????
November 24th, 2008 at 2:27 pmIt’s already a historical fact that the New Deal failed to do anything. Private investment recovered on its own due to a collapse of prices in the markets.
The New Deal had little to no effect on the markets, save new regulatory commissions to help the market be within the law instead of “robber baron capitalism”.
But, through-out all of FDR’s presidency the unemployment rate never dropped below 14%.
It’s disgusting that liberals are trying to revise history, when liberals in the 1960s even exclaimed FDR’s New Deal a failure.
Just as LBJ’s War on Poverty is a failure, his Great Society is a failure.
Just like Obama will be a failure.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:03 pmThat stock market chart is like showing annual average temperatures and saying the New Deal helped the economy because of the temperature changes.
You people have no critical thinking ability what-so-ever.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:04 pm