The issue was over the entire stimulus plan, not the simple set aside. My earlier point remains unchallanged.

On to your next point:

I am an historian and anyone that beleives that the Great Depression was prolonged by the New Deal is so idealogically blind that they are unwilling to confront the stubborn facts.

From 1929 to 1933 when the Republicans had the presidency and the Congress, GDP dropped by 25%, personal dropped from 90 billion to 50 billion, 20% of banks had failed, and unemployment was 25%. Industrial output was halved.

New Deal begins in 1934 and the economy grows by 10.8%, 8.9% in 1935, 13% in 1936 and 5.1% in 1937 (the year the New Deal was scaled back because of deficits). In the same period unemployment goes from 25% to under 10% and economy has recovered to pre-Depression levels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/the-great-depression-pt-i_b_154730.html

Now having looked over these facts, explain to me how this made the Depression worse? You need to stop listening to Limbaugh and Amity Shales pushing this silly revisionist history that’s grounded in nothing more than wishful thinking and bad ancedotes.

Here’s a great review of the Conservative myth maker, Shales, on the New Deal:

http://www.tnr.com/booksarts/story.html?id=82c53220-7594-4ece-a136-a3b2f54243ec

Shit, I like that.

Marv, I wouldn’t waste my time reading something written by a guy who said there wouldn’t be a recession. Why waste my time? I might as well read SC blogs; their predictions have the same 50/50 probability.

I would rather have them send BIG checks to people at random than to attempt these grand plans. They simply are not capable of pulling it off without huge waste and fraud.

Expecting Laffer to offer anything of any value on this economy is like expecting folks to tell us how to decrease domestic violence.

Dr. Tim: Can’t believe you said the government is the only big enough entity to get the free market moving. Damn, that was a stupid statement! Capital is dried up precisely because government has overspent and overborrowed and taken money out of the private sector, which is barely private anymore because so much of it has been subsidized by government. When businesses are irresponsible, they need to absorb the costs and not pass along to taxpayers. But our House Speaker and Senate Finance Chairman think all of us should assume the risks of “venture capitalists” and crazy clusters….wonder why SC has such high unemployment? Look no further than the Statehouse for the answer.

Dr. Pat: Oh, Geez. High speed rail? You cannot be serious in this state that we are going to spend money on something that big a waste. Again — you could hire a few workers to do some infrastructure projects. But please explain what happens when the money dries up and those people are out of work. Hint: there are no jobs for them because the private sector had to spend more of its available capital to pay for the government workers to build its infrastructure instead of its own. There is no “market” to pull the workers in.

All of you government employees or lobbyists: The New Deal didn’t end the Depression, it made it worse. In fact, during the Depression, new excise taxes were imposed that shifted more the tax burden onto the middle class. The recovery came about from the renewed trade with US allies during the War — the exchange of actual goods and services. That’s the only real economic stimulator.

The Policy Council report is cause for alarm, and we better pay attention and start demanding some radically different behavior from the legislature, and fast. Or we will be in even worse shape in two years.

Think about it…when the money is gone in two years, we’ll have a major spike in unemployment because all those dollars will be gone and there will not have been any long-term jobs created with those dollars, nor anywhere for the unemployed to go to work. Stimulated jobs go away. And then everyone pays more.