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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Republican Party has become the party of radicalism [Feb. 27 Sheila Suess Kennedy column]. It has trashed Keynesian macro-economic theory and substituted in its place its political ideology. This ideology is based on simplistic slogans that do not work in the real world. An example is that free markets are the answer to all our economic problems and the federal government is the problem.
The free markets did not come forward and provide financing for General Motors and Chrysler and save thousands of jobs. The federal government did. The Republican Party’s economic policy, which is ideologically based, goes back to Laissez faire that collapsed with the Great Depression. President Roosevelt tried Keynesian economics and it worked. It still works today. It is ironic that FDR saved the system and put into place a series of progressive programs such as the FDIC, which allow many hard working, saving Americans to sleep soundly at night.
The principle is that Republican ideology is no substitute for Keynesian theory, which has stood the test of time.
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Frank Prickett
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