RTFA: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/opinion/12mon4.h…

On Christmas Eve, the conservative pundit Monica Crowley argued on Fox News that instead of rescuing America from the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s spending on public works made it worse. She insisted that this bizarre claim was confirmed by “all kinds of studies and academic work.”

The show’s host backed her up. “Yes,” said Gregg Jarrett, “I think historians pretty much agree on that.” In the same vein, a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece said F.D.R. helped turn “a panic into the worst depression of modern times.” Now, as Congress begins to debate President-elect Barack Obama’s ambitious economic stimulus plan, this anti-New Deal talking point is popping up all over.

Conservatives have railed against the New Deal from the start. In 1934, H. L. Mencken was already decrying it as “a saturnalia of expropriation and waste.” When F.D.R. ran for re-election in 1936, a headline in William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers insisted that “Moscow Backs Roosevelt.”

But Americans were not fooled. They knew F.D.R. was on their side in a way that Herbert Hoover and his fellow free-marketers hadn’t been. They could see first-hand the good that Roosevelt’s jobs programs were doing for the Depression’s victims and the slow but unmistakable improvements in the economy.

…

Congressional Republicans say Mr. Obama’s stimulus will cost too much, and that over time the economy will cure itself. When critics raised the same objections to F.D.R.’s programs, his relief administrator, Harry Hopkins, had a ready answer: “People don’t eat in the long run. They eat every day.”

What, Americans should go to work? I thought they should sit at home and collect unemployment or welfare checks. The best thing for the rocketing unemployment rate right now is to make sure we don’t create new jobs. Jobs are bad. Jobs make Americans think they shouldn’t be lazy. Screw American industriousness; that was a myth of the 50s.

But, wait -> The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Benjamin Bernanke, disagrees with this rhetoric:

RTFA: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/…

U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the stimulus package being crafted by President-elect Barack Obama and Congress could provide a significant boost to the sinking economy. But he warned that such a recovery won t last unless other steps are taken to stabilize the shaky financial system.

Although Mr. Bernanke has previously endorsed the notion for a fresh round of government stimulus to lift the country out of a recession, it marked the first time the Fed chief has referenced the roughly $800-billion U.S. recovery plan now being worked on by Mr. Obama, who takes office next week. Mr. Obama envisions a blend of tax cuts and increased government spending, including on big public works projects, to make up the stimulus plan.

Mr. Bernanke, who didn t weigh in on the details of the evolving package, made clear that such a recovery plan was needed as part of a broader, multi-pronged government response to combat the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. and the global economy since the 1930s.

The incoming administration and the Congress are currently discussing a substantial fiscal package that, if enacted, could provide a significant boost to economic activity, Mr. Bernanke said in a speech to the London School of Economics.

At least someone has some sense!