He meant the same Republican Party that goes by that name.

 

Well I'm glad "hope and change" is working for you DL. Maybe you can take some well deserved time off from community organizing and try to convince all those people who are doing so good under Obama's new healthcare penalties...err I mean benefits that tax and spend is great policy. After all their new Healthcare tax is contributing to your cause.

 

The fact that since the election of Franklin Roosevelt there have nearly always been more jobs created per year under Democratic presidents does not seem to affect your opinions. Those opinions are not well thought out and well documented positions.

 

I am disappointed with Obama because he has not been able to out think and outmaneuver the Republican Party and make it irrelevant the way FDR did.

 

You mean because the decay of the Republican party and our country isn't as expedient as you'd like? Rest easy DL, Obama has two more years to finish "fundamentally changing" the country and doubling down on his apology tour.

 

Then you need to qualify your answer.

 

Cooperation with the Republican party was crucial for FDR to advance his agenda, he did not do it by executive order.

 

There you go again. If all democrats agreed with you, the O regime would have repealed all the Reagan, Clinton, Bush tax cuts! They had the House, the Senate and the Presidency! So how come they did not do it when they had the perfect opportunity???? Just maybe even O and his buddies think you are dead WRONG!

 

Even JFK thought that lower taxes would stimulate the economy.

 

Obama has done nothing but push pevertry-stricken people further down with his nanny-state ideas. "No jobs and free stuff!" Yeah, that supply will outstrip demand every day, huh?

 

President Clinton raised the top tax rate from 31.0% to 39.6%.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

On many occasions I have said that Obama made the mistake of not raising the top tax rate when his approval rating was about 65%, and addressing the employment situation before health care. The fact that his approval rating has suffered because of the sluggish economy indicates that I am right, and President Obama was mistaken.

Before doing what some Americans wanted him to do, Obama needed to achieve what most Americans wanted him to achieve: a good economy for most Americans, and successful conclusions to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

These were tall orders. Nevertheless, if Obama could not achieve them during his first term, he needed to achieve them in his second term.

 

Hey DL why did you drop the notion that the depression was ended by the formation of the CCC and WPA?

Care to comment on the role that Ford, Kaiser, Chrysler, General Motors and a host of other manufacturers played in cranking out war materiel from 1938 to 1945? Even my beloved pleasure boat building industry converted to building PT boats and minesweepers.

That is what pulled us out of the depression, all funded by the common guy buying war bonds.

 

I have always said that the Great Depression was ended by high amounts of government spending and employment, paid for by steeply progressive taxation.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was formed in 1933, the same year in which Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated. It was popular with Democrats and Republicans. It did not end the Great Depression. It did help reduce the unemployment rate from 1932 to 1934. This in turn helped the Democrats increase their majorities in both houses of Congress.

The Work Progress Administration was formed in 1935. It helped reduce unemployment even further. This in turn helped FDR be reelected.

 

The CCC did put people to work, it should have be emulated in 2008, as promised. But it did little to nothing to stem the Great Depression, ditto for the WPA, it merely accelerated some programs by creating "authorities" to construct public works projects.

The war effort was not financed by higher taxes, it was financed by private investment. FDR had a lock on the White House because too much was happening for him to be turned out. It is interesting that the two term presidential limit was put in effect because of his czarlike stance.

 

In 1964 the top tax rate declined from 91% to 77%.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

That year unemployment declined to 5.2 from 5.7 the previous year. However, unemployment had been in general decline since 1961, when it reached 6.7%.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU0...s_option=specific_periods&periods=Annual+Data

From 1963 to 1964 income tax receipts increased by $1,109 million. However, the previous year, with the top tax rate at 91%, income tax receipts increased by $2,017 million.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=203

Cutting taxes at the beginning of the buildup for the War in Vietnam was fiscally irresponsible. It probably contributed to the stagflation of the the 1970's. However, what really caused that was the increase in the world price of petroleum that followed the OPEC Oil Boycott of 1963, and the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Table.asp

 

From 1932 to 1934 the unemployment rate declined from 23.6 % to 21.7 %. By 1936 there was a further decline to 16.9 %.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html

During the Second World War the top tax rate increased from 81.1 % in 1940 to 94% in 1944.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

Raising taxes in war time was fiscally responsible.

 

Redistribution contributed to the creation of new wealth. Without steeply progressive taxation wealth stagnates at the top, like it did during the administrations of Reagan and George the Greater, and like it has since the tax cuts for the rich administered by George the Lesser.

 

"Moderate"?

Bill Clinton was a "moderate" liberal Democrat.

Obama OTOH is the guy who sat at the feet of a preacher who preaches Marxist black liberation theology for 20 fucking years!

Obama is the guy who associated with the radical former terrorist Bill Ayers!

Obama is THE MOST LIBERAL PRESIDENT the US has ever had, DL! I'd gladly take Carter again as POTUS over the POS Obama!

 

When I study American history I find it easy to identify with what was considered to be liberal and on the left until the 1970's. My initial enthusiasm for the civil rights movement and legislation has waned because of the increase in black social pathology since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

By the 1970's it was clear that ending racial discrimination would not achieve racial equality. The Democrat Party should have accepted what racial inequality persisted, because it was the result of innate inequality. Instead the Democrats tried to force racial equality with policies like affirmative action and forced school busing. This in turn enabled the Republican Party to dominate the United States.

My favorite president is Franklin Roosevelt. During each of the four times he was elected or reelected president he carried each of the eleven former Confederate states. The New Deal was very popular in the South with the same whites who later opposed the civil rights movement.

P.S. A fair observer will notice that I do not descend to comments like, "you couldn't be elected as dog catcher in Peoria." That kind of thing does not advance a rational discussion.

 

No doubt that raising taxes was hardly pertinent when only a very small handful of people were affected, the revenues generated were paltry.
However, the greatest revenue increase was from the number of unemployed who were now working in the war effort.Employment soared from 39,000,000 in 1933 to 66,000,000 in 1944, tax revenues jumped from $6.6 billion to $45.2 billion, virtually all from the increased number of workers.