Bachmania!

Ken AshfordAvian/Swine Flu, Economy & Jobs & Deficit, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Time to spread a little lovin' once again to "America's Worst Legislator"TM, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN).

First of all, she weighs in with her thoughts about the swine flu pandemic alert:

"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter," said Bachmann. "And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."

Interesting coincidence?  How?  If you're not blaming this on President Obama, then what is your point, Congresswoman?

Oh, and by the way, the swine flu outbreak occured in 1976…. under President Gerald Ford.

And earlier this week, Bachmann took the House floor to give a speech:

"As a matter of fact, the recession that FDR had to deal with wasn't as bad as the recession Coolidge had to deal with in the early 20s. Yet, the prescription that Coolidge put on that — from history — is lower taxes, lower regulatory burden, and we saw the 'Roaring 20s,' where we saw markets and growth in the economy like we'd never seen before in the history of the country. FDR applied just the opposite formula. The Hoot-Smalley Act, which was a tremendous burden on tariff restrictions. And then, of course, trade barriers, and the regulatory burden and tax barriers. That's what we saw happen under FDR that took a recession and blew it into a full-scale depression. The American people suffered for almost ten years under that kind of thinking."

Now, what is interesting about this is that she was reading from a prepared script, so she obviously had done some research.  

Or maybe not.

First of all, there was never such a thing called "the Hoot-Smalley Act".

Secondly, "a tremendous burden on tariff restrictions"?  What the fuck does that mean?

Now, there was something passed during the Great Depression called the Smoot-Hawley Act, and it did exacerbate the bad economic conditions.  Except that FDR didn't pass it.  It was signed into law by Herbert Hoover, a Republican, in June 1930.  And the bill was sponsored by Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. Willis Hawley.  They were both… yes, you guessed it… Republicans.  FDR showed up on the scene almost 3 years later, in March 1933.

Finally, the notion that "FDR took a recession and blew it into a full-scale depression" is simply false — you don't need me to tell you how to read graphs….

Depression-GDP-output-2