Today's spending promises inflation

This is in response to Robert Sargis' April 15 letter. Those who do not know our history are condemned to repeat it. These are words of wisdom that the current administration should recognize. There are two shining examples of absolutely massive government spending in modern history that did not meet their intended goals. In fact, they failed miserably. The first was the New Deal under FDR. While wonderful projects produced useful products from 1933 to 1939, the average rate of unemployment never fell below 17 percent. Henry Morganthau, FDR's treasury secretary, lamented at the results in this period, crying out that all the government's massive spending basically accomplished nothing to grow the economy. Again, during LBJ's administration, government stimulus took new form in The Great Society. Aimed at easing the strain on the poor and unemployed, we became familiar with the widespread abuses within the welfare state. The less-fortunate collected checks and received hardly any tools to enrich their skills. The bloated new government agencies wasted too much money to mention.

Blindly printing and spending money is foolish at best. Any economist worth his salt will tell you that spending on the level we have today during a recession will not aid economic recovery. In fact, when a sizable percentage of this money is circulated, we will see inflationary strain that will remind you of the Carter years.

As for your claim of the "Republican party leading the charge that resulted in our economy's collapse," I suggest you have a look at when deregulation first took hold. The man in charge was W.J. Clinton. Those heading the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and House Financial Services Committee are Chris Dodd (D-Conn) and Barney Frank (D-Mass). When you point a finger, there are always three pointing back at you.

Dan Milinko

West Chicago