Obama to Carter to Hoover - Unemployment, Inflation and Failed Economic Policies

"Obama Talks Up Stimulus" image: truveco.com

The Economic Outlook continues to decline as job losses this February were at 651,000, AFP bringing the unemployment rate to 8.1, with an overall 5.1 million American’s out of work. To counter the bad new, Obama is busy touting his job creating stimulus package, visiting Columbus Ohio, where 25 public jobs were “saved” by "stimulus". The Boston Globe reported that the President does know that there are greater job losses, but that he is indeed saving jobs; offering the 25 positions on the Cleveland Police Force as “proof” of accomplishment. The Globe, befriending the Republican Party, reiterated that “the stimulus - drew scant Republican support in Congress.”

The problem that President Obama now faces is the endless and eerily spot-on comparisons to former President Jimmy Carter – from high unemployment to an optimistic outlook in the face of disaster.

Carter Praying (for a miracle) photo upi

During the Carter Presidency, 7.3 million people we’re unemployed, carter introduced a “stimulus” which resulted in run-away inflation. Carter’s (Obama's) reaction (from Time):

Though the figures made gloomy reading, President Carter pressed ahead with his Pollyannaish forecast, telling accounting firm executives that recently lowered interest rates and a hoped-for drop in inflation by this summer mean that the nation has "turned the corner" on the economy. In fact, it looks as if U.S. business has turned the corner and come face-to-face with an unexpected precipice.

Herbert Hoover, image Hillyer.org

What is most interesting is that Carter was also compared to a former President - Herbert Hoover. In 1979, New York Times Columnist Seymour Melman, dubbed Carter – “Jimmy Hoover” “Intended or not, Jimmy Carters’ new budget, with its unprecedented $125.8 billion for the military, will intensify inflation and other economic decay. It reminds us that there was a lesson in the inability of President Herbert Hoover and his advisors to fathom the causes of the Great Depression. Apart from intention, wrong assumptions about economic behavior produce not only scientifically incompetent theories but also policies that fail. The result of Mr. Hoover’s assumptions are known. The Carter mechanism, while still in process, is predictable.

It goes without saying that as the nation stands upon the edge of an economic precipice of Carter and Hoover proportions, that history also indicates political fortunes of these three hapless Presidents will also align. Unfortunately, so will the fortunes of so many Americans. Unless and until a voice of reason cuts through the rhetoric and political ideology, by cutting the fat from the government first, giving the private sector some hope, and invest in the taxpayer by an increase in the current tax cuts under the Obama administration, and extend those to business as well. It is no shame to break a few promises to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, if it means saving the country pain and suffering for generations to come.

Email for copy or instructions on obtaining a copy of the New York Times Article “Jimmy Hoover”