Letter to the Editor: What will it be?
BY Bradley C. Byers, Tulsa
Friday, November 02, 2012
11/02/12 at 2:42 AM
In 1929, Wall Street crashed under the no-regulation policies of a Republican administration. President Hoover refused direct government help to people, farms and businesses, and the downward plunge into depression continued for three years.
Unemployment reached 25 percent. One worker out of four had no job. Families lived in tar paper lean-tos called Hoovervilles and stood in line at soup kitchens. Some people talked of revolution.
In March 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt replaced Herbert Hoover as president. Within 100 days he established government work projects and regulated Wall Street. The economy began its slow 10-year climb out of the Great Depression. The top income tax bracket for millionaires reached 94 percent. And Roosevelt was re-elected three times.
In 1999, Republican Sen. Phil Gramm and others abolished the last of Roosevelt's Wall Street controls. Democratic Sen. Dorman predicted this would cause another crash within 10 years. In 2002, President George W. Bush cut the top tax rate to 35 percent. Five years later the economy crashed.
This time, we elected a Democratic president within one year instead of three. Obama's policies stopped the unemployment plunge at 10 percent and the nation began a steady, gradual recovery.
On Tuesday we vote again. Will Tulsans vote for the recovery policies of President Obama and Democrat 1st District congressional candidate John Olson, or for a return to tax cuts and recession under Mitt Romney and our tea party candidate for Congress, Jim Bridenstine?
Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com.
