Don't Repeat Economic History

There are people who absolutely refuse to learn from history. And today, that seems to be the Republican Party. They want people to believe that the most important issue facing this country is the deficit and the national debt. They think (like Hoover did) that all of our economic problems would be magically solved by drastically cutting the federal government's budget.

Unfortunately, that is exactly the wrong thing to do in a struggling economy. And this is definitely a struggling economy. While Wall Street and the giant corporations are doing very well (and making record-breaking profits), the rest of America is still trying to shake off the recession. Cutting government spending will hurt those people (throwing many more into abject poverty) and it would take money out of the economy (hurting economic growth and small businesses).

The only way out of this economic mess is through job creation, which will require some government spending. The deficit and the debt do need to be reduced, but that can only happen by putting millions of Americans back to work (which takes them off government rolls and makes them taxpayers again). Cutting spending (and reducing taxes on the wealthy) right now will just hurt the economy, and extend the recession's effects for most Americans -- just like it did when Hoover tried it.