"A Chicken in Every Pot...A Car in Every Garage?"

Candidate Herbert Hoover's slogan of 1928, "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" won him Commander-in-Chief for four years in the White House. Hoover's plan for America? Re-engineer America away from ferocious capitalism and risk and into the safe arms of Uncle Sam's central planning apparatus.


The result? It was an economic dive-- into recession and "Hoover Hotels". Monday morning quarterbacks understand that strong-arm central planning has its place--but its not in America. the text books usually associate economic centralized planning with Bolshevik Russia and Mussolini's Italy. Yet, as Hoover's slogan and centralized planning schemes were implemented according to his will, trade was destroyed, capital dried up, and ingenuity was stifled. Jobs were lost, industries destroyed, and ________.


Surely the next president would understand the problem- right?


But it was FDR whose inner counsel glowed with reports from Mussolini's Italy and the Russian centralized planning apparatus. They have no rich...and therefore, no poor. Feeding the masses--this is what they do through government planning and distribution systems.


FDR's inner-circle was inspired. The Europeans and the Russians were going to teach Americans how not to starve and to make sure all comrades of the motherland could have their needs met----


The people have to be fed. They must be clothed. They must be cared for. The state must intervene against the exploiters, the robber barrons, and the capitalists who are to blame for the stock market crash and "Hoover Hotels".


With no chickens in pots and no cars in garages, FDR single-handedly turned a Hoover recession into an FDR Depression. More government control....more federal aid...more help from D.C....more strong-armed tactics against corporations....


What Hoover had engineered with large government programs and interventionsist federal policies between capital and labor, FDR doubled in eight years. Huge government programs, tariffs, and federal interventionist schemes, dislocated capital, stifled ingenuity, and destroyed labor produced 25% unemployment.


So what does this have to do with Senator Obama?


He promises to re-design America "to be more fair for all Americans".
He promises to transfer wealth from the wealthy to the poor
He promises to tax dividends and capital gains at higher rates than today
He promises to hike income taxes on the highest wage earning Americans today
He promises to hand out $1,000 to every American family from the profits of oil companies
He promises to review NAFTA and free trade

The Senator from Illinois is not alone in his promises. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Ted Kennedy and the entire wealth transfer gang have been harping for such utopian change forever.


McGovern's 1972 presidential bid uncluded free money to poor people in America. Hillary Clinton just finished promising the NAACP crowd $5,000 for every new-born baby in America. Walter Mondale in 1980 promised to hike taxes. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry promised the same shenanigans for the American people.


"LBJ all the way" didn't just promise to end poverty. Kennedy's Vice-president took the bull by the horn and jammed down America's throat government housing projects, welfare checks, food stamps, entitlement galore, etc..."The Great Society" and the expirement to eliminate poverty, disease, and ignorance produced 1 trillion dollars of debt and a destruction of work ethic like nothing seen before.


With Bear Stearns bailed out, 400 billion dollar in bail out money for homeowners, and Bernanke's discount window for financial institutions to drink from with cheap money, what exacly have we learned? We have learned that Reagan's America, where individuals have freedom and responsibility to live as Americans, is being challenged once again.


Will it be bread for the people? Or will the people demand their freedom to fail and succeed on their own at the ballot box this November? The prosperity of the 1920's found an end. Re-engineering America out of capitalism and into "no can't lose or fail" was Hoover and FDR's undoing in the 1930's.


The fresh face Senator Obama promises "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" but shouldn't Americans remember the last time a President made such promises in 1928?







Senator Obama, in an energy initiative speech, promises all Americans $1,000 each extracted from the windfall profits of big oil companies.









In addition, the Senator is being egged on to hike taxes including on income, dividends, and capital gains. The Senator promises "to make America a more fair place for all Americans." In the heritage of George McGovern 1972 who promised free cash running for office, and Hillary Clinton promising a $5,000 baby bond for new babies born in America if elected, the Senator has learned well how to run for office as a populist democrat.



The informed Harvard Law Review professor is a fresh face making a big splash in America. A hero to some, the post-racial hope to others, and an eloquent mystery man to others, Senator Obama delivers his message. What exactly is his message?



"Change that you can believe in" won him the Democratic primary. A fresh face and big splash doesn't change the equation. Trotting out old liberal quasi-socialist policies of McGovern, LBJ, and FDR, are supposed to be positive steps this time.



Hoover's governmental intervention programs all but assured a recession in 1929. FDR's policy-making counsel lauded Hoover's team for taking control of the American economy. What did FDR's team do? It proceeded to turn a recession in 1932 into and produce 25% unemployment, destroy capital formation, and dislocate capital from labor. More government programs, handouts, and federal help became the mantra of FDR. It took a world war to deliver the citizens of America from the clutches of FDR's socialist policies. And Democrats hail FDR as the greatest of all 20th century presidents?



"LBJ all the way" gave us "The Great Society". LBJ's 1960's promises to erradicate poverty, ignorance, and hunger was not only liberal, but Messianic in nature. Welfare money at the mailbox for votes at the ballot box gave liberals the impoverished vote.



And how does any of this history have anything to do with Senator Obama?



The Senator promises to strong-arm Americans, capitalists, and the wealthy for sure. "The automobile industry needs a partner in the federal government...." says the Senator.



The oil companies have made too much money off the backs of Americans. Big pharma companies ought to be regulated even further. Tax-paying Americans socking money away must have their divends taxed and their capital gains taxed. Waving his finger at all Americans to inflate their tires and tune-up their cars, the Senator explains that how badly he feels that gas prices have risen so quickly.



Drilling for oil is bad...inflating our tires is good.