Posted on 09/11/2011 10:12:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
In the summer of 1971, the nation was in the doldrums. Inflation was rising, and unemployment was uncomfortably high. The stock market was sinking. Polls indicated President Richard Nixon could lose his 1972 re-election bid.
He decided major changes were in order. On the evening of Aug. 15, 1971, Nixon went on TV to announce new economic policies -- the most drastic being a freeze on all wages, prices and rents. He assured his worried audience, "Our best days lie ahead."
The speech was a triumph. The stock market soared. Newspaper editorials hailed his courage. One poll found that 75 percent of Americans supported the plan. "In all the years I've been doing this," said the pollster, "I've never seen anything this unanimous." Nixon's economic strategy was a stroke of political genius.
In practice, however, it was a disaster. A powerful new bureaucracy arose. The dollar collapsed. Inflation persisted. Shortages of vital commodities emerged. In the end, Nixon had to abandon his program, but not until plenty of damage had been done.
Barack Obama's Thursday address to Congress was his attempt to seize the moment as Nixon did. But instead of something new and outwardly promising, all he had to offer was a variation on things that have already been tried, to little apparent effect.
His real problem, though, is the same one that Nixon eventually came to understand: the painful limits of his capacity. Obama does not have the power to create jobs, any more than Nixon had the power to curtail inflation. The central theme of his speech -- that millions of Americans would go back to work if only Congress will approve his plan -- rings false.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Thanx for the EPA tricky Dick!
The only enduring thing I remember from Nixon’s “Wage and Price Controls” is that when McDonald’s introduced or tried to increase the price of the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, they were forced to add a second slice of melted cheese to justify a $.05 price hike. Too bad Obama’s Administration can’t even claim such a dramatic feat of progress and the betterment of mankind!
Maybe the "Bullyshitty" pulpit?
In Babmy’s case it’s “Pulpit Bully.”
I’ve been finding new ways to compare Obama to Nixon every week.
“I’ve been finding new ways to compare Obama to Nixon every week.”
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Easy to do and even though I am not a real Nixon supporter it seems like an insult...to Nixon.
How can the idiots on the left not realize that Obama is the distilled essence of all the things they claim to despise in Republicans with NONE of the Republicans’ good points?
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