Remember when...

The Last Non-Insane GOP President

Anyone remember when Republicans weren't insane America-haters? You have to reach back to 1950s to find anything resembling sensible policy discussions.

ANTI-DEPRESSION PLANNING by Administration includes plenty of stop-gap measures just in case the experts prove wrong and the expected moderate decline turns into a full-scale recession. On the shelf are $15 billion of public-works projects, already blueprinted and approved by Congress, which can be quickly set in motion. Plans have been made to speed up state and local public-works projects, if need be by buying up their bond issues. The "tight money" policy, which has already been liberalized, would quickly be switched to fast expansion of credit by decreasing Federal Reserve margins, resuming the price-pegging of government bonds, and stimulating instalment buying. Taxes would be cut still more, the building industry get special inducements to expand. The Republicans say they will spend money faster than the New Deal if they have to. But they don’t think they will have to.

Summing up, the experts make no extravagant claims for the Eisenhower program. They do not claim it will produce a golden business boom. They do claim it will keep the economy stable, employment high, and the dollar from losing any more of its buying power. They think it will keep the business letdown from getting nut of hand. Americans will get used to a half-forgotten fact: that business does not have to break all records to be very good.