Obama’s Press Conference and the New Deal

by Francisco Gonzalez ~ February 10, 2009

Obama held his first primetime press conference last night to try to sell the nation on the large spending package (the one being sold as a “stimulus package”). While the nation is now facing a 7.6 percent unemployment rate, this is nowhere near the 25 percent unemployment we faced during the New Deal. And it still hasn’t reached the 10.2 percent unemployment we faced in the recession of 1982. We might first look at how we dealed with that recession in order to avoide the next Great Depression that Obama seems to be almost begging for.

What Obama said in his press conference was revealing. I don’t know if it was this obvious to the average American, but I think it was his first step as President into making America officially a socialist nation - perhaps modeled on some of the socialist nations of Europe. I would encourage you all to read the full transcript from his press conference.

They include statements such as these from President Obama:

“Some of the criticisms [of the spending bill] really are with the basic idea that government should intervene at all in this moment of crisis. Now, you have some people, very sincere, who philosophically just think the government has no business interfering in the marketplace. And, in fact, there are several who’ve suggested that FDR [President Roosevelt] was wrong to interfere back in the New Deal. They’re fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago.”

President Obama, if you really looked around, there is certainly not a concensus that FDR’s New Deal stimulated the economy. In fact, 10 years after the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment still stood at a whopping 17 percent. The only disagreements among economists and historians today is whether the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression. There is no question that it didn’t solve this. However, that myth still exists. But I thought Obama was an educated man. The only thing that actually got us out of the Great Depression was the mobilization of the nation for World War II, which we officially entered in 1941.

Still, in another statement, Obama talked about what he believes the role of government should be to solve this economic crisis:

“…The question I think the American people are asking is, do you just want government to do nothing, or do you want it to do something? If you want it to do something, then we can have a conversation. But doing nothing, that’s not an option from my perspective.”

This second statement is remarkable because it demonstrates why some people still think that FDR’s New Deal was successful - simply because he “did something.” Liberals like action, and voters like action too. Even if that action is a failure, a strong politician that appears to be “doing something” is found favorable by the masses. FDR’s actions were disastrous and did nothing to stimulate the economy - and there is debate on whether it actually made the situation worse. Sometimes doing nothing actually helps the economy do something. Sometimes having the government do something makes the economy do nothing - or even worsens the situation.

This is socialism disguised with a smile. At least Lenin was honest.