Putting The Children In Charge
Joe Nocera’s column in today’s New York Times will be quoted often in years to come. He and a few others — like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich — have written that America’s future is being sabotaged by the children who were elected last November. Nocera writes:
These last few months, much of the country has watched in horror as the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people. Their intransigent demands for deep spending cuts, coupled with their almost gleeful willingness to destroy one of America’s most invaluable assets, its full faith and credit, were incredibly irresponsible. But they didn’t care. Their goal, they believed, was worth blowing up the country for, if that’s what it took.
The truth is that the Tea Party Zealots — who talk boldly about patriotism and love of country — have struck deeply at their nation’s foundations. Like Franklin Roosevelt, who reined in spending in 1937 — and sent the country back into depression — these folks are hell bent on repeating the same mistake. But
inflicting more pain on their countrymen doesn’t much bother the Tea Party Republicans, as they’ve repeatedly proved. What is astonishing is that both the president and House speaker are claiming that the deal will help the economy. Do they really expect us to buy that? We’ve all heard what happened in 1937 when Franklin Roosevelt, believing the Depression was over, tried to rein in federal spending. Cutting spending spiraled the country right back into the Great Depression, where it stayed until the arrival of the stimulus package known as World War II. That’s the path we’re now on. Our enemies could not have designed a better plan to weaken the American economy than this debt-ceiling deal.
Responsible adults know that sometimes you have to tell children “No!.” — even as they throw a tantrum, hold their breath and turn blue. When you give the children the run of the House, the place will be left in a shambles.
Owen Gray grew up in Montreal, where he received a B. A. from Concordia University. After crossing the border and completing a Master’s degree at the University of North Carolina, he returned to Canada, married, raised a family and taught high school for 32 years. Now retired, he lives — with his wife and youngest son — on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. This post is cross posted from his blog.
10 Responses to “Putting The Children In Charge”
You first stated that FDR “reigned” in federal spending, not “reined in”.
You got it right the first time.
A Freudian slip, Prof. Thanks for pointing out the mistake. It’s unwise to put too much faith in Spell Check — and lots of other things.
I can fix that on this post very quickly. These things happen. When I was a reporter on a newspaper I once wrote “flower mill” versus “flour mill” and I didn’t catch it, my editor didn’t catch it and neither did the copy desk.
In the minority in congress in the future? Don’t worry – if there is a debt ceiling coming up you can just threaten to blow up the country unless you get to make policies as if you were in the majority!
Voters? Mandates? What do those unwashed maggots know about anything?
Thanks, Joe, for taking the reins.
The real children are putting down others (like the Tea Party and all other sensible rejection of excess and wrongdoing in Washington) as well as having tantrums and fits because their interests and their cherished obsolete myths and such are being threatened.
It’s just like Greece. I’m surprised these people named haven’t gone out in the streets and started destroying things.
Wow 10% of a party wanted more cuts. What the heck is the big deal? We basically are condemning the TP reps for not doing what they are told. What percentage of the Dem’s voted to pass? It seems to me the real problem was the partisan behavior not the TP.
75% of Republicans voted to avoid default, including all major party leaders.
50% of Democrats voted to avoid default, including all major party leaders.
I just liked how appropriate it came out.
FDR got Glass-Steagall right, but after that, it was setting up a lot of new federal programs, and bullying the courts to allow him to do so.
“inflicting more pain on their countrymen doesn’t much bother the Tea Party Republicans”
Therein lies the crux of the biscuit. As for FDR, he was 10 times the leader any of these fools today are.