"We will have to adapt it as conditions change. We will have to try things we've never tried before. We will make mistakes. We will go through periods in which things get worse and progress is uneven or interrupted.Translation: "We don't know what the fuck we're doing."
Welcome to the Deja Vu Deal, folks: In Liberal Fascism, Jonah Goldberg describes how the unconstrained social experimentation of the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression and left America with a permanent nanny state mentality, all due to this insane belief that "we have to DO something -- anything!," as opposed to making prudent decisions after careful consideration and cost-benefit analysis. Roosevelt said, "Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another."The only coherent policy Roosevelt subscribe to was "bold, persistent experimentation." Conservatives were cast by FDR and his allies as opponents of all change, selfish slaves to the status quo. But stasis is not the American conservative position. Rather, conservatives believe that change for change's sake is folly. What kind of change? At what cost? For the liberals and progressives, everything was expendable, from tradition to individualism to "outdated" conceptions of freedom. They were all tired dogmas to be burned on the altars of the new age.The result? A longer depression that worsened throughout the decade of the New Deal: Unemployment in 1939 (17.2%) was higher than in 1931 (16.3%), and the national debt increased from $16 billion in 1931 to $40 billion in 1939. [Source: Folsom, New Deal or Raw Deal]
And lo, BHO is now channeling the spirit of FDR, because it worked out so well the first time.
“What you see in FDR that I hope my team can emulate is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence and a willingness to try things and experiment in order to get people working again.”Yeah, that's great. If the first $9.7 trillion spending spree doesn't help, then what? Another $9.7 trillion? 'Cause you know, if the first "stimulus" heist doesn't spend America into prosperity, the only reason must be that you didn't spend enough.
Geithner's FDR-era predecessor, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., at least had the intellectual honesty to "admit frankly" the FDR administration's mistakes to Congress in 1939:
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. ... And an enormous debt to boot."I don't, however, expect Geithner, Orbama, Pelosi, Reid, Snowe, Collins, Spector, or any other paragon of hubris involved in this "stimulus" debacle will ever, ever, hold themselves accountable in such a way.
Because, you know, it'll be Bush's fault.
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