Ohio Republican Admits FDR Did Not Cause The Depression

One of the talking points that the GOP has attempted to deploy in the battle over the stimulus package is, "Hey! Remember that New Deal dealie? Boy, howdy, wasn't that a massive failure!" Oooh, oooh! And what if the Nazis had gotten the bomb? Then we'd be in some serious doo-doo, tra-la-la!"

Anyway, freshman Representative Steve Austria heard that talking point and decided that it could be made way awesomer. And in an environment where his colleagues are playing fast and loose with the facts, who can blame him? Still, I think this revision took things a step too far with the editors of the Columbus Dispatch:

The day before, as Austria was explaining his opposition to the huge federal stimulus package backed by President Barack Obama, he told The Dispatch editorial board: "When Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression. ... He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history."

Austria said he gave that message via telephone to constituents at a recent town-hall meeting.

Uhm, yeah. That led the Dispatch to point out that "Roosevelt took office in March 1933. Many historians date the Depression from the stock-market crash later dubbed Black Tuesday, which happened in 1929."

And so, Austria had to get back on point:

"I did not mean to imply in any way that President Roosevelt was responsible for putting us into the Depression, but rather was trying to make the point that Roosevelt's attempt to use significant spending to get us out of the Depression did not have the desired effect. Roosevelt did not put us into the Depression, but rather his policies could not pull the nation out of the recession."

I guess now is as good a time as any to offer Austria the chance to familiarize himself with what the New Deal accomplished, via the handy graph Rachel Maddow deployed Monday night:

That's just history!

Comments

[civitas11]

WWII got us out of the great depression, not FDR.

[civitas11]

THE GRAPH IS SCREWY.

Lets take a look at that graph, what is it comparing? GDP? Percent of what?

The GDP was not zero 1932-1933 and it did not go up to 98. It is a percentage, this graph is clearly manipulated to convince sheeple.

Dont be a sheeple think for yourself and always be skeptical of "statistics"

[thevealchop]

duh...

[americanalien]

Republicans are not worth a bucket of warm spit.

[Ohiomom]

Steve Austria is an idiot. I'm sure the people of the Ohio 7th district are hiding their heads after electing him. He had been considered the Ohio GOP's wonder boy. Now we wonder how he got this far.

[TheIndependenceParty]

The only thing more ignorant than an old Republican, it seems, is a young Republican. "It's just History." Right!

[1differentdrummer]

When people talk about the new deal in terms of GDP or any other index, they overlook the human element. The New Deal was responsible for some adults and their children having meals, shelter, clothing and healthcare. People who only wanted jobs to feed their families had to take welfare and glean crops to survive. It wasn't all numbers on reports, it was people. It wasn't dignified but it got the job done and people gradually came back from the R deregulation abyss. My family didn't think the Great Depression was so great.

[cayuse]

True, Franklin Delanore Roosevelt pickup of the world hand held it on his crippled body. He pulled the country trough the Depression, Dust Bowl, and World War II.

Fed Starving people, gave people dignity of a job, Save the World from the Axis Power at the cost of Saving the Republicans from themselves.

Unfortunately, they were back and here we are again

[cbat]

See, the problem is republicans think the American public are bunch of idiots, who are willing to believe anythig they say.

[cayuse]

And they are right. Till we stand up and speak of the history we know.

But when we are gone who will remember. Could it be time to outlaw Republican word twisting and spinning of the truth and break up the monopolies of Media and Corporations. Soon the will own GREEN Energy is we don't gain control

[ObjectiveRealist]

Colonizing GREEN Energy would be impossible for them, because it is so easily taken off the grid. Millions of landowners in this country, using wind and / or solar plus a couple dozen "marine batteries" (similar to standard auto batteries, but 24v instead of 12v, and of course more water-resistant) to store collected energy for dark / windless days, literally do not need public energy utilities but do not know it and do not nearly grasp the importance, the power they have against corporatism but aren't using.

[nomobull]

what choice did he have he became president four years after the start of the depression.

[cayuse]

Talk and Choice had nothing to do with it. He picked up the torch, as you say, and Walked the walk of depression, dust bowl and World War. Unpresidented. The mother of all Presidents the President of Presidences.

And he did it all without k illing one Indian for Gold and Silver. He saved the earth and nature from turning the country into DUST. He did defend the free world and put a damper on British and French world control in the process

[jmad]

The repg attack machine has no shame. The minute they lost they were whining about the lack of bipartisan agreement. Where was that when they were in charge. It is hard for me to forget Dick C's f you comment to Pat l. on the Senate floor.

[cayuse]

The Bush and Cheney DRONES are still flying HIGH. The Bailout of the rich is still happening. The Tax Code is still unequal with 0% Dividend and Capital Gains

[Rayme]

Would someone please learn some history, World War II didn't get us out of the Depression. People bought bonds to support the war and when it was over those bonds began to mature and people began to have a lot of discretionary income which brought them out of the Depression. Today, we wouldn't buy war bonds for an undeclared war on Terror on one of the poorest countries in the world that has no military solution, it has an economic solution, but not a military one. They are even talking about bring back the Draft because they cannot get enough young people to line up to be slaughter when they decide to declare war on Iran and Pakistan. Besides the pork in the new New Deal, many have not had a chance to discover the enormous Gun Control Laws hidden in the Package as well as the new Medical Slavery rules that would require doctors to limit medical care to people over the age of 55. I thought that Obama wanted healthcare reform to be out in the open. As for Gun Control, what are they afraid of, that we will revolt? (Like Iceland)

[chriss0114]

Maybe if you spent a few minutes reading the bill you would see that you are just spreading someone else's "enormous" lies

Maybe if you took a history class and possibly an economics class...

Oh forget it, you are obvious too lazy to seek out facts

[1differentdrummer]

Man, you are ingesting some bad stuff.

[Bienville]

During the Depression, when people were waiting in bread and soup lines, they had cash to lend to the Federal government in the form of War Bonds, and later, when the bonds matured, they could finally by their own bread and soup. Is that it? Was it because they lent the government all their money that they couldn't buy food?

[cayuse]

When the WAR was over there were no consumer goods. Factories were tooled for WAR. People had a lot of money compared to the fact their was no good to consume (high Aggregate Demand). A great demand for workers, hence high wages and many jobs (supply demand for jobs shift)

It had nothing to do with anything, but the conditions of comming out of a war. The women were forced to quit working so the soldiers could work after the WAR. Now we think the Arabs should free their women to lower demand for workers all around the world. And the d ikes think they are overcoming man when all they are doing is dropping the price of wages and raising unemployment. WAKE UP American and remember you education or quit spending my money on more memorized information to forget

[Craig2]

Any pros or cons on designating monies used to buy the "tainted assets" with Social Security funds? Congress, through legislation, is now holding those notes. Why not use those notes to purchase the "tainted assets", create a bank to hold them over the long term and reap the profits?

[cayuse]

Well if phony paper was as heavy as the distruction it caused the banking system I would strap them to the tail of every banker and give them a free ride to the bottom of the ocean. Then you could give me primary stock in a new bank without toxic assets and proper regulation and I could live like a Rockefellar, DuPont, Morgan, Carnigie, etc. I could give lectures and teach how to be rich by saving one penny at a time and have nothing, but tax and debt

[workturtle]

1) THE FAIRTAX!!! Before you discredit it read about it. I think you might be surprised. No more IRS!!! The US would become the largest tax haven in the world, corporation's wouldn't be able to move their operations (and jobs) here fast enough! True transparency because congressional spending would be spread evenly... they couldn't overspend with promises of the evil rich paying it off! Everyone would receive a monthly cost of living checks... you should not have to pay for the necessities of life. The black market would be taxed! Tourists would be taxed, in effect paying our federal budget. A 23% embedded tax to replace a 21% compliance tax. YOU pay taxes when you chose and how you chose. Did I mention no more IRS!!!

2) Get rid of the Federal Reserve (please read about the Federal Reserve) and institute the gold standard.

[billbb]

Every flat tax scheme is nothing less than an attempt for the wealthy to pay less, including every such idea floated for many decades. The reason for the complexity of the tax code is the chiselers, the loophole being hardly a modern invention. As the loopholes get more elaborate, so must the rules to prevent them. Let's take one tiny fact from the vast array of such problems and apply it to your flat tax: religious institutions cannot be taxed - that is in the Constitution. So, real fast now: a simple and all inclusive definition of a religious institution that includes the real ones and keeps out your crazy Uncle Louie, who thinks he hears the voice of God on his fillings. Or the fake "minister -by-mail" programs. But you have to include Buddhists, Free thinkers, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Amish and Wiccans. Only the real ones, though, not the cheats. Only, that darned Constitution again, which prevents you from defining cheats by defining the religion or instructing the religion what they must do.

Vast pronouncements of fairness are easy. Actual fairness is hard. That's why we have so little of it.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
H. L. Mencken

[cayuse]

National Sales Tax would tax spending, not earning. I would make it progressive to tax away the Bavarian Lotto winners who daddies and grandaddies gave it to them, while the poor would have a freer ride to the middle class.

Equal Taxation would be fair, just and make the Business Cycle flatter. Right now the Bavarian Lotto winners trade in the Stock Market contributing nothing to the economy, but are maintaining all their inherited wealth with 60% of all corporate profit in dividends each year. Allot of money to lose every years while betting on stock Appreciation. Imagine, like the Heinz Ketchpup inherited wealth that generated $5,000,000 pocket change with only 12% tax in 2004

[CaptainVideo]

Anything called a "fair tax" is likely to not be fair.

[desertman]

I agree FDR did not cause the depression. I do think the New Deal softened the effects of the depression but in so doing took longer to recover from. In earlier times before government intervention, depressions were more severe but recovery was quicker.

[chriss0114]

Just don't let facts cloud your thinking

[CaptainVideo]

No previous recession the United States had faced was as severe. That is why it was called the "Great Depression."

Just as no wall is as great as the wall in China. That is why it is called the "Great Wall."

[Sick-of-Corruption]

Distoring history is NOT new for the Repugs!