No New Deal II

by Rohit Gupta - March 31st, 2009 - National Post

The AAA, in the name of raising prices to battle what Roosevelt perceived to be the country’s biggest economic ill — deflation — forced farmers to cut production by essentially destroying excess crops (mostly cotton) and livestock. In 1933, six million piglets and 220,000 pregnant cows were slaughtered, and many cotton farmers plowed under one-quarter of their acreage.

The mandated destruction of food and the increasing of its prices at a time when many Americans were already hungry due to shortages and lack of affordability was curious economic policy, to say the least.

AAA is an amazingly apt metaphor for cap and trade. Focusing on a problem that may not be real and creating programs that do not fix the problem, that actually do serious damage to our citizens, is not the way to go. Even Barack Obama realizes that cap and trade will double your electrical bill. How can anyone think that this is a good thing in current circumstances?

This is a good summary of the bad consequences of the first new deal. Democrats love to point to the number of public parks and other fine recreational facilities that still exist due to the New Deal. What they never want to investigate is the horrible waste of resources and economic damage that are the real cost of their creation.