What if Hillary sweeps the remaining contests?

[MTAtech]

WWII didn't start (for the U.S.) until 11 years after the Depression.

[jokostel]

Originally Posted by MTAtech

WWII didn't start (for the U.S.) until 11 years after the Depression.

What didn't kill us off made us stronger.. or so we thought.


We are a shadow of our former selves.. the generation of folks who fought/lived in the 40s. knew what it took to make somethin from nothin.
I WISH we had leadership now like we did back then.

[Pexster]

Me, too. A Dem having an affair in the White House, lol.

[MTAtech]

The point was that government's responsed to the Depression by instituting banking regulation, among other things and federally funded programs to help those in need.

Conservatives balked at Roosevelt's measures. My point is that government isn't bad as right-wingers suggest. Federal money spent wisely can be a benefit for generations to come. That was the case with the WPA and the PWA took unemployed Americans and put them to work on public projects such as building bridges, schools, dams, etc. The Hoover Dam was such a project that then produced electricity for parts of the country that didn't have electric lights. (One of the errors in the movie Transformers [2007] was that it attributed the building of the Hoover Dam to President Hoover. Pres. Roosevelt commissioned the Hoover Dam.)

[Sarah L]

Originally Posted by MTAtech

The point was that government's responsed to the Depression by instituting banking regulation, among other things and federally funded programs to help those in need.

Conservatives balked at Roosevelt's measures. My point is that government isn't bad as right-wingers suggest. Federal money spent wisely can be a benefit for generations to come. That was the case with the WPA and the PWA took unemployed Americans and put them to work on public projects such as building bridges, schools, dams, etc. The Hoover Dam was such a project that then produced electricity for parts of the country that didn't have electric lights. (One of the errors in the movie Transformers [2007] was that it attributed the building of the Hoover Dam to President Hoover. Pres. Roosevelt commissioned the Hoover Dam.)

Absolutely Wrong. Unless Roosevelt was President in 1920.
Bureau of Reclamation

[sr71000]

Hoover was head of a commission formed in 1922 (President at the time was Warren Hardin)

Bills to construct damn passed congress and signed by President Coolidge in 1928

Initial construction begins in 1930 - Hoover already president

construction finished under FDR

If i remember correctly, FDR's plans really stepped up construction for the dam however Hoover was the initial player who got the ball rolling and saw the initial construction of the dam.

/edit - got that all from wiki btw

[Sarah L]

Originally Posted by sr71000

Hoover was head of a commission formed in 1922 (President at the time was Warren Hardin)

Bills to construct damn passed congress and signed by President Coolidge in 1928

Initial construction begins in 1930 - Hoover already president

construction finished under FDR

If i remember correctly, FDR's plans really stepped up construction for the dam however Hoover was the initial player who got the ball rolling and saw the initial construction of the dam.

/edit - got that all from wiki btw

Saying FDR is responsible for that dam is like saying Nixon is responsible for putting a man on the moon. They both inherited a project started by other men. They first considered the need for a dam on the Colorado in 1902.

[MTAtech]

Although I stand corrected on who started the project, you all seem to take-off on that aside as if it was the crux of the post. The actual point was to dispel right-winger's ingrained philosophy that government never does good and thus, government should be reduced, as Grover Norquist said, "to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

The reality is government spending isn't the problem but what government spends money on is. Priorities matter. Government can spend billions to fight a needless war in the Middle East or provide health care to all of its citizens. We can build a new weapons system or roads and bridges. It can choose to reduce taxes and thus, pay billions of dollars in interest, or provide education that lifts the earning power of Americans and the economy as a whole.

Whether Hoover, Roosevelt or George Washington commissioned the Hoover Dam is hardly important. What is important is that government can do good and did so. When I wrote about the Hoover Dam as an example of how Roosevelt spent government money for worthwhile investments, I was thinking of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). (Flog me for such a serious error.)

When Reagan left office, the government accumulated the largest debt up to then, $2 Trillion dollars. The debt is now about $12 Trillion and what do we have to show for it? The debt reflects poor spending choices made primarily by Republican leaders.

[Sarah L]

The Government is the worst implementor of any project. The Hoover dam project proves that. Take a good hard look at the history of it. From the birth of the knowledge the Colorado river need some control in 1902 to finalizing the distribution of water in 1948. This kind of project could not be accomplished by our present Government today by the way.

TVA was a better project and you should use that instead.

But the founding fathers understood something you do not. Governments will act in their best interest naturally taking in all the power it can grab. Their is always someone in power that thinks they know better than you on how you should run your life.

The founding fathers clearly understood that governments by their nature are the greatest enemy of freedom and the people. They always evolve into tyranny left unchecked. Mans entire history proves that.

A failure of many men is not to recognize that governments evolve slowly over many years to become something alien to its founding. Just like our has in many ways.

We are supposed to be a Republic composed of 50 Democracies. The more Republic the less Democracy.

[MTAtech]

Sarah, you are discussing two separate things. One is the foundations of democracy and the other is government competence. The two are distinctly separate. It is possible to have a tyrannical dictatorship that is quite efficient or a total democracy that is inefficient. The Nazis were diabolically efficient and Mussolini's trains ran on time.

As a person in the military it's ironic that you are so down on government's ability to do anything. Iraq is proof that the private sector isn't always better than government. I'd put up our own military personnel against the private contractors any day of the week.