Link: Walter E. Williams: To Hell With Our Constitution

Bodhisattva · February 11th, 2009, 09:32 PM

Food for thought (or fighting):

	Quote:
	Until the 1930s, the Constitution served as a major constraint on federal economic interventionism. The government's powers were understood to be just as the framers intended: few and explicitly enumerated in our founding document and its amendments. Search the Constitution as long as you like, and you will find no specific authority conveyed for the government to spend money on global-warming research, urban mass transit, food stamps, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, or countless other items in the stimulus package and, even without it, in the regular federal budget. ..... In 1893, there was a depression; we got out of it without a stimulus package. There was a major recession of 1920-21; though sharp, it quickly reversed itself into what has been call the "Roaring Twenties." In 1929, there was an economic downturn, most notably featured by the stock market collapse, after which came massive government intervention -- you might call it the nation's first stimulus package. President Hoover and Congress responded to what might have been a two- or three-year sharp downturn with many of the policies President Obama and Congress are urging today. They raised tariffs, propped up wage rates, bailed out farmers, banks and other businesses, and financed state relief efforts. When Roosevelt came to office, he became even more interventionist than Hoover and presided over protracted depression where the economy didn't fully recover until 1946.

link

Pluck and Grit · February 12th, 2009, 11:15 AM

I guess the reason no one has replied to this is that it's hard to argue with the truth.

gmart74 · February 12th, 2009, 11:20 AM

I was thinking something along these lines a couple weeks ago. I was wondering why we make people pledge to defend the Constitution and people talk about it with reverence when it is blatantly obvious that we dont follow it any more. It has simply become an interesting piece of paper.

TRUTIDE · February 12th, 2009, 11:55 AM

	Quote:	gmart74
	I was thinking something along these lines a couple weeks ago. I was wondering why we make people pledge to defend the Constitution and people talk about it with reverence when it is blatantly obvious that we dont follow it any more. It has simply become an interesting piece of paper.

The problem is that Obama literally believes in FDR's New Deal policies. This is his ideology. He has been singing praises of FDR for some time now. No matter what history tells us or what readily available evidence is out there, I think Obama really thinks this plan will work and he is dead set on seeing it out.

The dems in congress are estatic over this. It is a spending spree for them.

pc2bama · February 12th, 2009, 11:59 AM

What's this Constitution-thingy you speak of? Never heard of it.

BAMAFAN IN NY · February 12th, 2009, 12:00 PM

What I dont understand is: We have concrete examples of what works and doesnt work. What works: Supply side and trickle down economics.. it created the largest expansion of wealth in the history of the world. What doesnt work: So called stimulus packages... they have never worked, they hafve always made things worse. Are our politicians really this stupid? Or do they think we are this stupid?

TRUTIDE · February 12th, 2009, 12:12 PM

	Quote:	BAMAFAN IN NY
	What I dont understand is: We have concrete examples of what works and doesnt work. What works: Supply side and trickle down economics.. it created the largest expansion of wealth in the history of the world. What doesnt work: So called stimulus packages... they have never worked, they hafve always made things worse. Are our politicians really this stupid? Or do they think we are this stupid?

Wait just one minute. I thought Schumer said you New Yorkers liked your Barbeque...

Americans "really don't care" about "those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments" that get tucked into bills like the federal stimulus package.

Islander · February 12th, 2009, 12:15 PM

	Quote:	BAMAFAN IN NY
	What I dont understand is: We have concrete examples of what works and doesnt work. What works: Supply side and trickle down economics.. it created the largest expansion of wealth in the history of the world. What doesnt work: So called stimulus packages... they have never worked, they hafve always made things worse. Are our politicians really this stupid? Or do they think we are this stupid?

I think you just hit the daily double!

Bamaro · February 12th, 2009, 12:35 PM

	Quote:	BAMAFAN IN NY
	What I dont understand is: We have concrete examples of what works and doesnt work. What works: Supply side and trickle down economics.. it created the largest expansion of wealth in the history of the world. What doesnt work: So called stimulus packages... they have never worked, they hafve always made things worse. Are our politicians really this stupid? Or do they think we are this stupid?

It also created a 10 trillion deficit which is what it was suppose to eliminate and led us into a financial meltdown.

BAMAFAN IN NY · February 12th, 2009, 12:40 PM

	Quote:	Bamaro
	It also created a 10 trillion deficit which is what it was suppose to eliminate.

Whats this deficit you speak of? And how did that lead to a meltdown?

And this financial meltdown was a DIRECT result of The Emergency Home Finance Act of 1970. That also was a so called STIMULUS plan.

	Quote:
	Act creating the quasigovernmental Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, also known as Freddie Mac, to stimulate the development of a secondary mortgage market. The act authorized Freddie Mac to package and sell Federal Housing Administration- and Veterans Administration-guaranteed mortgage loans. More than half the home mortgages were subsequently packaged and sold to investors in the secondary market in the form of pass-through securities.

LINK

Bamaro · February 12th, 2009, 12:47 PM

	Quote:	BAMAFAN IN NY
	Whats this deficit you speak of? And how did that lead to a meltdown? And this financial meltdown was a DIRECT result of The Emergency Home Finance Act of 1970. That also was a so called STIMULUS plan.

Debt to be more exact

BAMAFAN IN NY · February 12th, 2009, 12:48 PM

	Quote:	TRUTIDE
	Wait just one minute. I thought Schumer said you New Yorkers liked your Barbeque... Americans "really don't care" about "those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments" that get tucked into bills like the federal stimulus package.

Schumer can go jump in a lake.

Pluck and Grit · February 12th, 2009, 03:04 PM

Tax cuts do not have to automatically mean deficits. Tax cuts + spending cuts work just fine. But it's a whole lot easier to pass a tax cut through Congress than a spending cut.

Anyhow, as somebody else alluded to, I don't know of any recessions that have been caused by a U.S. federal government budget deficit. Some regionally localized (globally speaking) recessions have happened due to other governments defaulting on their debt.... Russia in the 1990s comes to mind. There have been some others. To my knowledge, the U.S. government is a long way from that. It's possible that it could be an issue someday, but that day isn't here.