FDR & New Deal

Did FDR End the Depression?
The economy took off after the postwar Congress cut taxes

Correct conclusion, but could be better argued. The comparison with Europe seems very telling. Sweden had recovered from the Great Depression by 1935, Germany did it by 1936, Britain in 1938. But, unfortunately for the Folsoms' argument, weren't those recoveries in every case due to Keynesian deficit spending by those governments? Yes, I think so -- government spending for massive rearmament programs in the case of Germany and then Britain. But experience clearly shows that tax cutting is the right move when the current baseline is already very high levels of government spending, huge deficits, and high taxes. That describes our situation at the end of WWII, and today; tax cuts worked then and they will work now. The government pump-priming Obama is fixated on is not working, and will not work, against a high spending-high deficits-high taxation baseline. In his commitment to government stimulus, Obama is just stuck on stupid.

Byron