If you grew up a Reagan-loving conservative like I did, odds are you have at least heard the name George Will.
Will, an Oxford and Princeton educated Goliath in American Conservative commentary, grew to prominence in the 1970s as an editor of the National Review. He carries on today as a highly syndicated biweekly columnist.
Did I mention he also has a Pulitzer Prize for commentary?
In other words, I and many of my fiscally conservative contemporaries have significant man love for George Will.
In his column early this week, “Just say no to a New Deal,” Will delivered a good ol’ fashioned conservative bashing of the New Deal and called for the new administration to reject an FDR solution.
Mr. Will and I share a mutual distaste of the New Deal policies which among other things, created deficit spending and the welfare state.
Where we differ, my conservative grandmother is rolling in the grave as I say this, is in the notion that we do not need to “spend our way out of this recession.”
This goes against every fiscally conservative bone in my body, but I simply cannot help saying that this time the game has changed.
Outrageous levels of government spending failed at the start of the Great Depression because FDR’s hyperkinetic policies paralyzed the private sector. As a result, the Depression did not improve and actually worsened into the industry collapse of 1937, a full eight years after the markets crashed.
1930s America and twenty-first century America are two entirely different beasts. In the 30s, we were the industrial and economic jewel of the world. When industry failed, capitalism fueled new American businesses to fill the void. Today, those businesses are starting up in the Far East.
No longer, can America claim to be the economic powerhouse of the world. We are reliant on the Middle East for almost all of our oil and continue to increase an already massive trade deficit.
Simply standing back as the Detroit automakers and Wall Street fail will not spring forth more efficient and better run American businesses. It will only serve to further accelerate our own economic demise. Somehow, I do not see a way in which millions of unemployed Americans will find jobs in an ever shrinking job pool. Main Street and Wall Street are doomed to failure if Congress continues to mindlessly debate. The recent lame-duck session should be evidence enough of that.
I am certainly not calling for blanket Socialism, a disaster in the making. But laze faire government is not going to cut it right now. Bold action is necessary to make our businesses competitive again and to place America back in the driver’s seat.
I may not have voted for him. But with everything I hold dear in the balance, I hope Mr. Obama can lead us out of this economic downturn.
For a few months, let’s not divide into Keynesians or fiscal conservatives, but instead, work together to develop a sustainable solution. Otherwise, our economy as we remember it may never reappear.
