2012 = 1936

Growing up and going to school in the 1940s and 1950s, I was of course imbued with the notion that Franklin Roosevelt had done a heroic job in saving the country from the Great Depression. It was only in recent years that I began to scratch my head in wonderment: if he did such a great job, how come it took him twelve years and the most destructive war in history to restore the country to prosperity?

A better argument can be made that Mr. Roosevelt lengthened the Depression by an unholy combination of government borrowing, increased taxes, the creation of a new entitlement program, and a vast increase in the regulatory state. "We will tax and tax and tax," he famously said, "and spend and spend and spend, and elect and elect and elect."

Does this sound familiar?  Blue skies! -- Dan Ford