A Lesson in Liberalism
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A Lesson In Depression Era Tax Increases, Unemployment, And When The Depression Ended.
So the solution to our economic woes rest in Senator Obama's 'Spread The Wealth' Policies. Yet, history directly contradicts these policies, and Both President Reagan and President Kennedy believed that genuine tax reform was based upon a top-down approach.
In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for election. At the time, over 10,000 banks (40% of those that existed in 1929) had failed, GNP had fallen by over 30% since 1929 and unemployment had risen to a staggering 23.6%.
Prior to Roosevelt's election, President Hoover who had tried to combat the economic free fall through monetary measures, attempted a bold new approach: He agreed with a minority democratic congress and raised the top marginal tax bracket from 25% to 63%.
Hoover was viewed publicly as aloof on his handling of the economy and as a result Roosevelt handily defeated Hoover. During Roosevelt's first year in office, he would face a third banking panic and declare a federal bank holiday to prevent another run on banks. He would institute massive expansion of the federal government including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Farm Credit Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the National Recovery Administration, the Public Works Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Emergency Banking Bill, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, the Farm Credit Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Truth-in-Securities Act. Unemployment would rise in 1933 to 24.9%.
Between 1934 and 1936 Roosevelt would institute the Federal Communications Commission, the National Mediation Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Board and the Rural Electrification Administration.Congress passes the Banking Act of 1935, the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act.
In addition, the government would resort to deficit spending to pay for the government expansion and in 1936, Roosevelt would raise the top tax bracket to 79%. Despite the tripling of the top tax rates, deficit spending and massive government expansion, by the time of Roosevelt's re-election unemployment had only dropped to 16.9%.
After Roosevelt's inauguration in 1936, the lack of economic improvement and rising taxes that had now invaded the middle class would lead to a sharp decline in Roosevelt's public approval and cause a rift within his own party.
Roosevelt's economic plans began to come under fire and economic conditions which had slightly improved since 1932 began to deteriorate. The Supreme Court would rule the National Recovery Administration to be unconstitutional. As the reality that government spending was not solving the depression, by the middle of 1937 the economy was once again retracting and Roosevelt's proposals for more New Deal legislation in late 1937 and 1938 would fail to win the support of either Republicans nor Democrats. By the end of 1938, unemployment had once again risen to 19.0%.
Yeah, lets try the same exact plan that know is a failed one again?
In 1939, Congress would finally grant Roosevelt's requests to begin rebuilding the military when they granted him $1 billion for defense spending. The growing hostilities and outbreak of World War II in 1939 and 1940 would cause the allies to turn to US manufacturing might and finally end The Great Depression.
The Sixteenth Amendment, which legalized an income tax, was submitted to the states in 1909 and ratified in 1913. At this time, roughly 2 per cent of American households paid the new tax.
Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
So yes ladies and gentlemen. If you are looking for more government, a higher top tax bracket that will eventually rise to 90% YES, 90% (which was promised to only affect the richest of americans and worked its way down to the middle class) Then obama is your man.
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson