Post by moondog on Dec 31, 2008 15:22:26 GMT -5
what got the country rolling, even though they got jobs from the WPA too.
Do you advocate someone like Bushy Boy bailing this country out of the DEPRESSION we are in? Hell man, he got us there.
First off, the WPA was declared Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It was used to put jobs where votes were needed, not to end the Depression. In fact, at one point when many of the jobs were due to be eliminated on October 1st of 1936 Roosevelt is quoted as saying, "I don't give a God damn where he gets the money from but not one person is to be laid off on the first of October."
Four months before the 1936 election, 300,000 men were added to the WPA. In the month after the Election, 300,000 were removed from WPA work. This prompted Thomas Dewey to observe, "Three-hundred thousand men and their families moved on and off relief as pawns of New Deal politics." He was absolutely correct. The New Deal was playing a shell game and using tax money to win elections by using patronage as a means to get elected. FDR became Santa Claus, passing out relief for votes and no one shoots Santa Claus, they just want his gifts. In this case, no one even asked where the gifts were coming from, except some politicians like Alf Landon.
But, if you believe it is okay for the Federal Government to drive a man out of business because he can afford to charge less then his competitors and make a darn good living, then the New Deal was a success. If you believe a man should be able to set his own prices for his work, then the New Deal was a failure. Very little good came out of the New Deal and we lost a great deal of States rights when FDR came to power. Massive sums of money were removed from the economy to go to the Federal Government.
Democrats love to point out our debt. Were you aware that the National Debt under FDR nearly tripled? If Christopher Columbus had invested $100 a minute from the time he had landed in the Americas on that October day, by 1939 he would not have accumulated enough money to pay off the debt that was incurred in the 1930's alone. To put it another way, if we had invested $100 a minute in 1930 dollars, it would take 450 years to pay off the debt that FDR spent us into.
Unemployment is another issue, one you yourself have pointed out because of the NPA job you received. The unemployment rate in 1931, the year before FDR's election, was 16.3 percent or 8,020,000 unemployed. That is enough people lined up one after the other in three side by side lines to reach from Los Angeles across the Untied States to the border of Maine. The unemployment rate in 1939, FDR's second term, was 17.2 percent or 9,480,000 unemployed. That would have extended that same line from the border of Maine to Boston, then to New York City, to Philidelphia, onto Washington D.C. and finally into Virginia. Proof of his programs failures, not successes.
To see things even more clearly, the rates of death from suicide, accidental falls, reckless driving, or being hit by a train all increased. The birth rate dropped 56.25% from a rate of 16 percent in the 1920's to 7 percent in the 1930's. Life expectancy was increasing at a rate of 6 months per year for an increase of 16 years from 1900 to 1932. In 1940, after seven years of the New Deal, life expectancy dropped from 63.3 years to 62.9 years. For Black Americans the rate went from 54.7 years to 53.1 years in the same time frame.
These are only a few of the statistics taken from that era. They tell a completely different story then yours. I bet you voted Democrat at the time you got that job. If you hadn't you would probably have gotten a letter similar to the one sent out by a Pennsylvania county chairman:
"Dear Madam:
"I am very much surprised that you have not responded to our previous letter requesting your contribution in the amount of $28.08 ($429.28 in 2008 dollars) to Indiana County Democratic Campaign Committee, as I was sure that you appreciated your position to such an extent that you would make this contribution willingly and promptly. I must, however, now advise you that unless your contribution in the above amount is received promptly it will be necessary to place your name on the list of those who will not be given consideration for any other appointment after the termination of the emergency relief work, which as you know will terminate in the near future."
Yes, not so subtle, is it. The FDR era corruption was to use federal tax income to get FDR re-elected through was is called patronage. Spread the jobs, threaten the jobs of those who do not tow the line. That, more then anything else, is the way of the progressive. Slimy, underhanded, immoral grabs at power that belong with the states. That is what you support. In 1932 through 1945 it was called one thing and one thing only, fascism.
