The following is from “No Ordinary Time” by Doris Kearns Goodwin: “Under [Harry] Hopkins resourceful leadership, the WPA [Works Project Administration] employed two million people a month. It built thousands of schools , libraries, parks, sidewalks and hospitals. It sponsored murals for the walls of public buildings, and hot lunches for the children of the poor; it put writers to work preparing tourist guides to American cities and states; it supported plays and playwrights and actors and directors… To Harold Ickes’ criticism that the jobs the WPA created were not permanent, that the only way to relieve unemployment in the long run was to prime the pump by subsidizing private enterprise, Hopkins replied ‘people don’t eat in the long run. They eat every day….’”
The New Deal got excellent value in exchange for government money and helped spur a recovery by 1935. It was only when FDR reversed directions in 1936, spurred by the same type of conservative ideology to cut deficits and balance the budget, that the economy sunk back into depression which lasted until massive defense spending starting in 1940 led to wartime and post wartime full employment. We are in the process of repeating the foolishnesses of 1936 and can only expect the results of 1937.
When we lay off teachers, shelve construction problems, postpone invesetments in research and college educations for promising younths, we are elminatnig productive use of resources. Such foolishness may lead to the next administration having to reinstate the WPA!
Incidentally, the Watchdog’s warnings have simply echoed the overwhelming consensus of reputable economists. Most Congressmen and Senators understand economics, but many Republicans have from the outset set their priority on defeating President Obama in 2012. Of course, an ignorant right wing fringe does exist.
The deficit cannot be reduced by cutting…that just puts more people out of work. The economy must be further spurred, as President Barack Obama urged a year ago, by another recovery act. Once people are back to work, expenses drop precipitately and revenues pour in. Then it will be the time to trim the budget, increase taxes on thewell-to-do and rich, and get back on the solid fiscal footing of the Clinton years.
