"The recession that FDR had to deal with wasn't as bad as the recession (President Calvin) Coolidge had to deal with in the early '20s. Coolidge cut taxes and created the roaring '20s. FDR applied just the opposite formula: the Hoot-Smalley act, which was a tremendous burden on tariff restrictions. And of course trade barriers and the regulatory burden and of course tax barriers. That's what we saw happen under FDR. That took a recession and blew it into a full-scale depression. The American people suffered for almost 10 years under that kind of thinking."
The truth? Historians agree that tariffs hurt trade and worsened the depression.The same thing is happening now. George Bush and congressional Republicans destroyed our economy and now the ignorant blame Barack Obama.
However, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — not Hoot-Smalley — was proposed by two Republicans, Sen. Reed Smoot of Utah and Rep. Willis Hawley of Oregon. A Republican House and a Republican Senate approved it. President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, signed it into law.
When you have 25% of the country being led around by their noses by idiots, liars and revisionists like Michele Bachmann we shouldn't be surprised that we have a few thousand sheep at Teabagger parties. These are the same people who want Phyllis Schlafly to take the place of Thomas Jefferson in our kid's history books. Ignore them. They're weak and too stupid to matter.
