The GOP leadership claims stimulus spending doesn't work, and is crying crocodile tears about the budget deficit. They claim the New Deal didn't work. They are not stupid, they are deliberately lying and they are doing it for political reasons despite the harm it does to our nation.

Let's look at the numbers here. In 1929 when the stock market crashed to 1932 this was the national debt and the GDP:

National Debt GDP
6/29/1929 16.9B 103.6B
6/29/1930 16.1B 91.2B
6/29/1931 16.8B 76.5B
6/29/1932 19.4B 58.7B

The "Do Nothing" policies that our current GOP advocate we do now, led to the economy contracting severely back then. Now here is when the New Deal kicked in:

National Debt GDP
6/29/1933 22.5B 56.4B
6/29/1934 27.1B 66.0B
6/29/1935 28.7B 73.3B
6/29/1936 33.7B 88.8B
6/29/1937 38.4B 91.9B
6/29/1938 37.1B 86.1B
6/29/1939 40.4B 92.2B
6/29/1940 42.9B 101.4B
6/29/1941 48.9B 126.7B

There is a clear relationship between deficit spending and economic growth here during these bad times. The one year republicans persuaded Roosevelt to cut the deficit (1938), the economy contracted again. When deficit spending resumed in 1939 the economy took off again. (That's not to say we need high deficits always. During good times the economy will grow without it. )

The GOP will say it wasn't the New Deal that ended the Depression, it was WWII! Yeah, well WWII was the ULTIMATE STIMULUS. That's right folks, HUGE government borrowing and spending boosting the economy.

National Debt GDP
6/29/1941 48.9B 126.7B
6/29/1942 72.4B 161.9B
6/29/1943 138.6B 198.6B
6/29/1944 201.0B 219.8B
6/29/1945 258.6B 223.1B

Deficit spending nearly doubled our GDP in 4 years. Our Debt to GDP ratio in 1945 was 116%. Today with the trillion dollar stimulus it is still about 80%.

2009 10T 12.5T

Sure, if the debt were 3 times the GDP the interest would become a huge burden, but the levels we're reaching with the current stimulus are not even close to untenable.

But it is important to look at these numbers for another reason: the WWII economic figures are puny by comparison to today's economy and clearly show economic growth (and inflation to a smaller degree) will make deficit spending virtually meaningless over time. The WWII debt was insignificant by the 1960s.

That's right folks, in 20 years a few trillion won’t be that much money. The GOP leadership knows this, and that is why the last three GOP presidents have run up such big deficit numbers. But they also know they can rally their uniformed minions by screaming about how we are destroying our future with debt we will never be able to recover from.

It is a lie!