Written by Perry Hazeltine, Lancaster City. This piece was first published here, the LancasterSpeaksUp.com blog, on January 25, 2021 with permission from the author. It has been submitted to LancasterOnline/LNP for consideration as a Letter to the Editor.
In 1932, Americans were desperate. Hoover’s stubborn refusal to stimulate the economy trapped people in poverty. Working people rallied around the New Deal and elected Roosevelt despite the charge by Republicans that he was a socialist.
This shows that our country can mobilize the political will to create big and bold programs. New Deal programs bettered working people’s lives and eradicated the poverty that plagued the elderly. Programs, like the FDIC and social security, have outlasted the Great Depression and remain popular.
Yet, political scientists have observed that when considering big programs like the Biden Stimulus Plan, Americans tend to support specific items but not the program overall for fear of government spending. Yet if there is ever a time to stimulate the economy with strategic spending, that time is now.
Like the New Deal, the stimulus plan aims to restore the economy with deficit spending. Economists call this a “good deficit”—getting money in the hands of unemployed people and struggling businesses in the middle of a financial crisis caused by a health crisis. By contrast, the 2017 tax cut during an economic boom was a “bad deficit.”
Amid the pandemic’s economic toll, Americans face desperation similar to that of the Great Depression. The Biden Stimulus Plan will alleviate the financial hardship faced by people who want to work. Let Senators Casey and Toomey and Representative Smucker know it’s time to stimulate the economy by voting for the Biden Stimulus Plan.
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Well written, Perry! We don’t want to make the same mistakes that were made in the first years of the Obama administration. We need to stimulate the economy!
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