海角大神

John Boehner, the Republican House leader who will become Speaker if Democrats lose control of the House in the upcoming midterms, recently offered his solution to the current economic crisis: 鈥淟iquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmer, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. People will work harder, lead a more moral life.鈥�

Actually, those weren鈥檛 Boehner鈥檚 words. They were uttered by Herbert Hoover鈥檚 treasury secretary, millionaire industrialist Andrew Mellon, after the Great Crash of 1929.

But they might as well have been Boehner鈥檚 because Hoover鈥檚 and Mellon鈥檚 means of purging the rottenness was by doing exactly what Boehner and his colleagues are now calling for: shrink government, cut the federal deficit, reduce the national debt, and balance the budget.

And we all know what happened after 1929, at least until FDR reversed course.

Boehner and other Republicans would even like to roll back the New Deal and get rid of Barack Obama鈥檚 smaller deal health-care law.

The issue isn鈥檛 just economic. We鈥檙e back to tough love. The basic idea is force people to live with the consequences of whatever happens to them.

In the late 19th century it was called Social Darwinism. Only the fittest should survive, and any effort to save the less fit will undermine the moral fiber of society.

Republicans have wanted to destroy Social Security since it was invented in 1935 by my predecessor as labor secretary, the great Frances Perkins. Remember George W. Bush鈥檚 proposal to privatize it? Had America agreed with him, millions of retirees would have been impoverished in 2008 when the stock market imploded.

Of course Republicans don鈥檛 talk openly about destroying Social Security, because it鈥檚 so popular. The new Republican 鈥減ledge鈥� promises only to put it on a 鈥渇iscally responsible footing.鈥� Translated: we鈥檒l privatize it.

Look, I used to be a trustee of the Social Security trust fund. Believe me when I tell you Social Security is basically okay. It may need a little fine tuning but I guarantee you鈥檒l receive your Social Security check by the time you retire even if that鈥檚 forty years from now.

Medicare, on the other hand, is a huge problem and its projected deficits are truly scary. But that鈥檚 partly because George W. Bush created a new drug benefit that鈥檚 hugely profitable for Big Pharma (something the Republican pledge conspicuously fails to address). The underlying problem, though, is health-care costs are soaring.

Repealing the new health-care legislation would cause health-care costs to rise even faster. In extending coverage, it allows 30 million Americans to get preventive care. Take it away and they鈥檒l end up in far more expensive emergency rooms.

The new law could help control rising health costs. It calls for medical 鈥渆xchange鈥� that will give people valuable information about health costs and benefits. The public should know certain expensive procedures only pad the paychecks of specialists while driving up the costs of insurance policies that offer them.

Republicans also hate unemployment insurance. They鈥檝e voted against every extension because, they say, it coddles the unemployed and keeps them from taking available jobs.

That鈥檚 absurd. There are still 5 job seekers for every job opening, and unemployment insurance in most states pays only a small fraction of the full-time wage.

Social insurance is fundamental to a civil society. It鈥檚 also good economics because it puts money in peoples鈥� pockets who then turn around and buy the things that others produce, thereby keeping those others in jobs.

We鈥檝e fallen into the bad habit of calling these programs 鈥渆ntitlements,鈥� which sounds morally suspect 鈥� as if a more responsible public wouldn鈥檛 depend on them. If the Great Recession has taught us anything, it should be that.anyone can take a fall through no fault of their own.

Finally, like Hoover and Mellon, Republicans want to cut the deficit and balance the budget at a time when a large portion of the workforce is idle.

This defies economic logic. When consumers aren鈥檛 spending, businesses aren鈥檛 investing and exports can鈥檛 possibly fill the gap, and when state governments are slashing their budgets, the federal government has to spend more. Otherwise, the Great Recession will turn into exactly what Hoover and Mellon ushered in 鈥� a seemingly endless Great Depression.

It鈥檚 also cruel. Cutting the deficit and balancing the budget any time soon will subject tens of millions of American families to unnecessary hardship and throw even more into poverty.

Herbert Hoover and Andrew Mellon thought their economic policies would purge the rottenness out of the system and lead to a more moral life. Instead, it purged morality out of the system and lead to a more rotten life for millions of Americans.

And that鈥檚 exactly what Republicans are offering yet again.

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