Health Care "Reform"--Obama's Smoot Hawley

Students of economics know that the Great Depression was not caused by stock market speculation or free market excesses it was caused by the severely protectionist legislation of the Hoover Administration manifested in the Smoot Hawley tariff. Hoover, despite objections from over 1,000 economists and hundreds of corporate executives, encouraged the lawmakers to pass the legislation. Smoot Hawley was a knee jerk response to a troubled U.S. economy, troubled in part because of economic policies put in place by Hoover.

In short Smoot Hawley was the wrong legislation for the wrong reason at exactly the wrong time.

Herbert Hoover was a brilliant and accomplished man. He studied geology and engineering at Stanford, worked in mining all over the world, was appointed by Wilson during WWI as U.S. Food Administrator, served as Commerce Secretary under Harding and Coolidge. He was so accomplished that according to Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man, prior to turning thirty, "the newspapers reported he was the best-paid man of his generation (29)."

He had a fine mind, but he his instincts were wrong on economic policy and he didn't listen to the experts. He was supremely confident in his abilities. He was described by novelist Sherwood Anderson as having the face of a man who "had never known failure." A dangerous dangerous confidence. The kind of confidence that pushes aside self doubt, that places too much value on oneself, the kind of confidence that is unable to walk away from the precipice.

And that kind of confidence caused the Great Depression, the greatest economic disaster in modern history.

Fast forward to health care "reform" in 2010. President Obama is no Hoover. For one thing he hasn't a single, tangible accomplishment to point to. He is not experienced in business, we know nothing of his education background, and rather than having a face that "had never known failure," his face reflects petulance, arrogance and a stubborn determination to get his way despite the limits of the Constitution and will of the American people. But even more disturbing, this president's policies will be disastrous. Deficit spending unrivaled by any president in our history. Tax rates scheduled to sky rocket in 2011 with already sustainably high unemployment and a moribund economy. A massive redistribution of wealth that will not only not create wealth, but will disable the private sector for a generation.

This Administration knows at the core their policies won't work. That is why they lie about them. They simply refuse to face the facts. Obama is convinced if he says so, it will be so. As misguided as Hoover's Smoot Hawley policy, as potentially devastating, is health care "reform" and every major policy Obama is championing.

Including cap-and-trade and immigration. These policies are wrong-headed. They will cause economic hardship on millions of Americans. But mostly, they are simply un-American.