Conservatives Have Trouble Telling The Truth About FDR And New Deal

Ohio congressman Steve Austria embarrassed himself by going overboard in parroting the usual conservative claim that FDR actually made things worse rather than better with his New Deal. While opposing the stimulus legislation he took an idiotic extra step of claiming

The last time this was done, was under Franklin Roosevelt, and when Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a great depression, to be honest with you.

Mark that word "honest" for future reference.

This story which I link to above goes on to state

Rep. Austria was given a chance to make clear whether he was really blaming FDR. He repeated his point, saying, "That's just history."

The story goes on to succinctly explain that

Actually, it's just nonsense. President Roosevelt inherited an unemployment rate of 25 percent in 1933. By 1937, it had dropped to 14.3 percent, an extraordinarily fast drop in percentage terms. Then there was what some economists call a "mini-depression," and the rate went back as high as 19 percent. But overall, from 1933 to 1940, it dropped from 25.2 percent to 14.6 percent.

Now that is history. And I might add that the "mini-depression" was caused by Roosevelt caving in to pressure to attempt to balance the budget. Further proof that things are exactly opposite to what our conservative friends attempt to portray.

However, moving on, we find that Austria finally was later forced to recant, writing

I did not mean to imply in any way that President Roosevelt was responsible for putting us into the Depression, but rather was trying to make the point that Roosevelt’s attempt to use significant spending to get us out of the Depression did not have the desired effect. Roosevelt did not put us into the Depression, but rather his policies could not pull the nation out of the recession.

As for honesty, it is hard for me to understand how he could have spoken so boldly earlier, even saying "that's just history," and then later claim he didn't mean to imply what he so clearly said.

The truth is just the truth, no matter how hard one may want to spin it otherwise: The New Deal did start turning things around.