re: #31 jamesfirecat

“FDR’s big government spending helped us out of the Great Depression”

To be fair, there is disagreement among economists and economic historians about that, with the consensus seeming to be that it didn’t work particularly well. There are two very readable books on this:

“The Forgotten Man” - Amity Schlaes
“New Deal or Raw Deal” - Burton Fulsom, Jr.

And, there’s Henry Morgenthau’s admission (FDR’s best friend and Secretary of the Treasury):

We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work … After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot!

(paraphrased from a letter written in the late 30’s - after, as he notes, eight years of the FDR administration)