Sunday morning, fresh from a brief photo expedition in the neighborhood, I overheard one of the morning chinwag shows being watched by a couple of my associates. The oily senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer was name-calling per usual. This time he oozed out a comparison he's been using lately which is, expressed arithmetically: GWB= Herbert Hoover.
This is beyond silly on many levels. First, as my younger associate pointed out, the majority of voters today don't know the difference between Herbert Hoover and William McKinley. Heck most voters today probably couldn't tell you if Hoover came before or after FDR. There is simply no traction to such an opaque, dated political argument. Schumer, of course, is too political an animal to even begin to get this.
Secondly, pretending that this economy in the current business cycle (that has created a record number of jobs, a record low unemployment rate, is yet to record even a single month of below zero growth, and is so strong it apparently can support a $3 Trillion federal budget that Schumer's party thinks is too small!) is the equal of the Great Depression is, um, hyperbole. There, that's a nice way to keep from saying, FREAKIN' INSANE.
And thirdly, if Chuck wants to talk about the causes of the Great Depression he could start with the actual precipitating event: the Smoot-Hawley Tariff. Has President Bush proposed anything like that? NO. Quite the opposite.
But Sen. Schumer has sponsored its modern day equivalent, a 27% tariff on imports from China. A move that would almost certainly start a worldwide trade war. And, by the way, another huge problem in the era you harken back to, Chuck, was the looming specter of tax increases. Seen anything like that lately Schm, er, Chuck? Oh yeah, just the largest tax increase in US history parked dead ahead.
I would say that Senator Schumer's performance Sunday morning, "was a little pitchy, dawg."
Or something like that.
