The second coming of Herbert Hoover
The
second coming of Herbert Hoover
The
Republican answer to the crisis
By
Max j. Castro Read Spanish Version
majcastro@gmail.com
The
Republicans in Congress finally came up with an answer to the
terrifying job losses and economic decline. Too bad their answer — a
spending freeze — has been tried before with disastrous results. Is
it possible that the GOP has learned nothing from Herbert Hoover,
whose misguided austerity policies helped turn an economic crisis
into the Great Depression?
While
the fear of the overwhelming majority of economists and most sensible
people is that the government’s massive economic stimulus might
still be too small to turn back the avalanche of unemployment and
other symptoms of economic decline, Republican leader after
Republican leader stood up in Congress to propose a spending freeze.
John McCain. John Boehner. Tom Spence. Eric Cantor.
What
is going on here? What could our twenty-first century Herbert Hoover
clones be thinking? It would seem that after realizing that just
saying “no” to whatever Obama proposes is not a good political
strategy — the president’s approval ratings are in the
stratosphere and those of the Republicans in Congress are in the
toilet — the minority party came up with a brilliant new strategy:
Propose exactly the opposite of whatever the administration is
supporting!
It
was more than seventy-five years ago that John Maynard Keynes
demonstrated the folly of the policies that the Republicans now are
proposing. It could not be clearer that the economic troubles of our
time are a function of a dearth of private demand. People are not
buying cars, houses, plasma televisions, and the million other things
this economy creates or imports. That means that those who make,
distribute and sell these goods lose their jobs in droves. And that
translates into another wave of decreasing demand, more job losses,
ad infinitum.
Only
the injection of public sector demand — tons of money from the
government — can possibly arrest this death spiral before it takes
an enormous toll. It’s Economics 101, but the Republicans don’t
seem to get it. Are they a one trick pony? Or could it be that some
in the party that are still skeptical of 19th
century biology and believe that global warming is not a problem have
not yet assimilated early 20th
century economics? Maybe the Republicans are just betting that
disaster is inevitable, hoping with Rush Limbaugh that Obama fails,
and establishing a record that they proposed a different course,
fiscal austerity,
that might have worked?
Postscript,
department of shame:
In this time of crisis, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez deserves a
double dishonorable mention for holding up an omnibus bill to fund
government operations because language in it would make unenforceable
the cruel restriction on Cuban family travel and remittances imposed
by George W. Bush.
