Geoff Skelley (“Partisan games”, 2/19/2009) puts forth three inaccuracies: the “American people are frustrated” with Congressional Republicans, they want a do-nothing stimulus or one with their same tired policies, and the that New Deal was generally successful.
On the first, as of February 15 Rassmussen reports Republicans were within two points of Democrats on the general ballot. This is an improvement from the six point spread immediately after President Obama’s inauguration. Republican gains are surely a result of the cabinet’s dislike for taxes and significant disapproval of the stimulus. In terms of the latter, the Associated Press reported on February 19 that 52 percent of the public support the plan. For a president who has an approval rating of 60 percent, it is remarkable he couldn’t muster greater support for his first major legislation. The polls presented above clearly show that it is in fact Republicans who are making electoral gains.
On the second inaccuracy, Skelley writes that Republicans are a bunch of do-nothing “partisan hacks.” He believes that if they did want a stimulus it would include cuts in the capital gains tax and for top income earners. Apparently Skelley wasn’t aware that Republicans offered their own stimulus, which didn’t include either of those provisions. In fact, their plan was comprised of cuts in the payroll tax, corporate income tax, and for the bottom two income brackets.
On the final inaccuracy, Skelley writes that the idea of the New Deal’s failure is a “conservative distortion.” In “The Forgotten Man,” Amity Shales notes how even FDR’s Treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. admitted the New Deal was a complete disaster, saying “we have tried spending money; we are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work ... After eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot!” Further, Christina Romer, the chairwoman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, has written that it was monetary easing that ended the Great Depression rather than FDR’s aggregate demand stimulus.
In conclusion, Skelley failed to do simple research for his rant. He wasn’t aware of recent polling, that the Republicans offered their own stimulus plan, and how unsuccessful the New Deal really was.
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