A History Lesson from Mr. Freedman

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/08/congress.economy/index.html?iref=mpstoryview if you don’t know.

Who is Mr. Freedman? Mr. Freedman was my high school US history teacher. I have a lot of memories of him, and one of the clearer ones is this:

We’re talking about FDR one day in class.  (That’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for the uninitiated.)  Mr. Freedman is describing FDR’s New Deal policies and views in regards to beating the Great Depression.  This was the way he summed it up: “We’ll try something, and if it doesn’t work — we’ll try something else!”

Very well.  Now is the time, I think, for something else.  For eight years we’ve had tax cuts as the answer to all humanity’s problems.  Well, I don’t know about you, but I didn’t see much changing.  Now the GOP is calling the (admittedly hugely expensive) bailout measure a waste that will “lead to disaster,” according to CNN.  Why?  Because it doesn’t have enough tax cuts.  (Note if you haven’t been following: one-third of the bill is tax cuts.)  I could just reiterate that a tax cut doesn’t fix a road, but I’ve got something else to say tonight.

Sen. McCain’s comment on the situation, again according to CNN, ran thusly: “We’re going to amass the largest debt in the history of this country, by any measurement, and we’re going to ask our kids and grandkids to pay for it.”  Hey, guess what?  We already have amassed that debt, and I, the rest of my generation, and my kids are already going to have to pay for it.  And you know what?  I’m okay with investing another trillion in the future.  I can’t speak for the rest of my peers, but it seems to me that we don’t have much choice at this point.  Will I sacrifice 0.3% economic growth over ten years to reduce the unenployment rate by over 25%?  Hell yes I will.  I’m less concerned about a growing economy than making sure that people have jobs, so they can do things like buy food and learn to pay off debt.

Mr. Freedman, consider your lesson well-learned: I now believe it’s time to try something else.