Employees in Ridgewood’s Village Hall had a scare on Wednesday after a hoax cleared the Violations Department for about two hours.
The Violations Department is where individuals send parking ticket payments and other fine payments. The department received a letter Wednesday that contained a separate envelope with the words “white powder” written on it, said Ridgewood Police Captain Tom Landers.
“When the violations clerk opened up the outer envelope, there was an inner paper envelope that just said in black letters ‘white powder,” Landers said.
The clerk did not open the inner envelope and she called the police immediately, at which point Ridgewood Police Sergeant Glenn Ender responded. He did not open the envelope, Landers said.
The police evacuated the Violations Bureau and called the Bergen County Hazmat Unit.
“They (officials with Bergen County Hazmat) examined the envelope, and found it to contain no powder or no substance whatsoever,” Landers said. “So it was a hoax.”
Landers said the envelope was turned over to the Ridgewood Detective Bureau for further investigation.
The government-school establishment has said the same thing for decades: Education is too important to leave to the competitive market. If we really want to help our kids, we must focus more resources on the government schools.
But despite this mantra, the focus is on something other than the kids. When The Washington Post asked George Parker, head of the Washington, D.C., teachers union, about the voucher program there, he said: “Parents are voting with their feet. … As kids continue leaving the system, we will lose teachers. Our very survival depends on having kids in D.C. schools so we’ll have teachers to represent.”
How revealing is that?
Since 1980, government spending on education, adjusted for inflation, has nearly doubled. But test scores have been flat for decades.
Today we spend a stunning $11,000 a year per student — more than $200,000 per classroom. It’s not working. So when will we permit competition and choice, which works great with everything else?
The people who test students internationally told us that two factors predict a country’s educational success: Do the schools have the autonomy to experiment, and do parents have a choice?
Parents care about their kids and want them to learn and succeed — even poor parents. Thousands line up hoping to get their kids into one of the few hundred lottery-assigned slots at Harlem Success Academy, a highly ranked charter school in New York City. Kids and parents cry when they lose.
Yet the establishment is against choice. The union demonstrated outside Harlem Success the first day of school. And President Obama killed Washington, D.C.’s voucher program.
This is typical of elitists, who believe that parents, especially poor ones, can’t make good choices about their kids’ education
full story https://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/education-too-important-for-a-government-monopoly.html
>Acting N.J. education commissioner hoping other savings can ward off cuts
Acting Education commissioner Bret Schundler told lawmakers Thursday his team hoped to keep state aid to schools steady next year despite warnings they should prepare for 15-percent cuts — just in case. “We’re working hard to see if we can achieve state aid that’s flat but we don’t know if it’s possible,” he told the Assembly Education Committee. “We’re going to try our best to see if we can achieve economies elsewhere in the state budget” to alleviate the pain for schools.
Many educators said they were distressed Wednesday after Schundler and Governor Christie said districts should anticipate possible 15-percent cuts when they prepared budgets this spring. Asked after Thursday’s hearing whether 15-percent cuts were the worst-case scenario, Schundler said “that would be precipitous to say. I wouldn’t say yes, I wouldn’t say no.” (Brody, The Record)
Doubling parking meter rates in Ridgewood did not double revenues, but other factors may have played a role in how the parking utility netted $34,000 in additional income over a five-month period, compared to the same time frame in 2008.
The Ridgewood News, through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, obtained parking utility revenue figures for the months from August to December 2008, when rates were 25 cents an hour to park at all meters in the village, and August to December 2009, when the Village Council changed the rates to 50 cents an hour.
The revenue totals for the 2008 period were $254,167.80, while the total for the last five months of 2009 were $288,622.28.
The biggest difference following the rate increase was the change in enforcement times. From 2008 and up to the time of the increase, parking meters were enforced Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. But after August 2009, the enforcement times changed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Another difference is that the village only enforced meters on Ridgewood’s streets on Saturdays, offering free parking in the municipal lots for that day.
Also, the village took over management of the Chestnut Street parking lot from a private vendor in October 2009, and that lot produced an additional $7,509 of parking revenue for the final three months of last year.
But the addition of the Chestnut Street parking lot revenue may have been offset by nearly six weeks of construction at the Prospect Street municipal lot in August and September of last year, when the village replaced curbs, sidewalks, light pole bases, decorative bricks and paved the lot’s surface. The East Ridgewood Avenue streetscape project, which lasted all summer, and work done by Ridgewood Water in the Central Business District (CBD) might also have affected parking revenues because parking in the area was periodically restricted during construction.
Village Manager Ken Gabbert explained in an e-mail that “the rate increase created greater revenue in each of the months following implementation,” but “the parking utility was not self-funding in 2009,” which was the goal of the increase.
Gabbert wrote that it cost $1,000,668 to run the parking utility last year.
“Any revenue/expense imbalance for the parking utility is immediately made up by the general fund of the village,” Gabbert wrote. “For 2009, the village payment is $168,000.”
When the council voted to raise the parking rates and change enforcement times last summer, it stipulated that it would revisit the matter after six months. Councilman Paul Aronsohn, who has long opposed the parking meter increase, said in an e-mail this week that he “strongly believed” the entire issue should be revisited.
“I still believe that parking lots should all be long-term and all be put back to their original rate of 25 cents per hour,” Aronsohn wrote. “This would provide much-needed and much-deserved relief to our commuters, and it would provide some relief to people who work or shop downtown.”
Aronsohn said he needed to better understand the “rationale and funding” for the utility.
“I’m still not satisfied that it provides a benefit to the village or that it is being used properly,” Aronsohn said.
Mayor David Pfund and Deputy Mayor Keith Killion did not return calls seeking comment for this article by press time.
More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.
Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel.
Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.
In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined “Old Hickory” to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington.
In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed “that to the victors belong the spoils. . . . “
Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be “so plain and simple” that offices should rotate among deserving applicants.
As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party–the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him.
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I.
Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command.
The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.
Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. “The bank,” Jackson told Martin Van Buren, “is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.
His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay.
Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff.
When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification.
In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his feet and exclaimed, “By the Eternal! I’ll smash them!” So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and succeeded to the Presidency when “Old Hickory” retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845.
The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure. However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November. Just 27% believe their own representative in Congress is the best person for the job.
Among voters under 40, 25% believe government has the consent of the governed. That compares to 19% of those ages 50 to 64 and 16% of the nation’s senior citizens.
>I’ve found all of this debate very intersting over the past few days. Please allow me to share my pespective.
I spent the beginning of my career in the Ridgewood Public Schools before moving to another affluent Bergen County school district.
While in Ridgewood, I worked with many gifted teachers. But, I also saw the arrogance of some of the staff and administration at work, and it was making the district weaker even then, and that was almost a decade ago. Sure, some of the teachers were catty and competitive types. I remember having great enthusiasm when I was there, in my first two years, and basically I was a threat in the eyes of a few of the teachers I worked with. I know that when I left, the parents in the students in the building felt a loss based on who replaced me. I don’t think Ridgewood has always hired well over the past few years.
Another part of the problem in Ridgewood is the administration. The Central Office group is a joke, moving through superintendents, although I can’t judge the current one, Fishbein, as I don’t know much about him. But how many dollars were wasted during the Porter years for those that remember those? Porter was brought in to change the philosophy of the district to a “standards based” approach. His philosophy was so out there he couldn’t so much as articulate it himself.
The district also brought in some horrible principals as the years passed. Several of the elementary schools today–with just a few exceptions–have horrible leaders at the helm. I personally saw one particular school ruined by a woman who is now a supt. elsewhere in the county after a longtime principal left. Friends experienced the same thing at some of the other elementary schools.
I didn’t find the parent community to be bad to work with at all. I found them to be very supportive. I had no complaints there. You had some jerks, but you have that everywhere.
People should really think about what they say when they bash the entire profession. In Ridgewood, I felt that the majority of the staff, despite some of the losers mentioned above (not by name), were dedicated teachers who wanted the best for their students.
Most teachers work hard to earn every single dime that we make. Take a look at salary scales. Where is it that we’re doing so well? After the first dozen years of teaching, one’s salary finally hits the range of professionals who do far less every day in some fields.
When people say don’t give teachers raises and take away benefits, do they realize the cost of this? If you want to attack school districts for crazy spending habits, look at how top heavy their administrations are.
You’re going to find bad teachers out there. They exist. And it’s a shame the union protects them, but we do. I know, I’ve been a rep for years. One of the things that is frustrating is having no choice but to defend certain bums. But the majority of the people I represent, I can proudly say, are true professionals, and it is an honor to represent them.
So, when teachers ask for a 4% raise and to keep benefits, don’t think that is so unreasonable. After taxes, and considering how the money is spread out on a salary guide, the average teacher may be lucky to see 2%. Now, add in paying for health benefits. And, where exactly would the raise be then?
It’s cool, and in style, to bash teachers right now. I understand how tough the job market is for people in other fields. But, here is my final thought: THE NEXT TIME SOME OF THE ARROGANT JERKS ON THIS BLOG WANT TO SAY HOW EASY TEACHING IS, AND THAT IT IS NOT A REAL JOB, I CHALLENGE THEM TO SPEND ONE DAY IN A TEACHER’S SHOES. JUST ONE DAY. THEN, IF THEY STILL FEEL THE WAY THEY DO, THAT WOULD BE FINE WITH ME. WHY DO I SAY THIS? BECA– USE I KNOW THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN’T DO THE JOB WELL. THEY CAN’T DO IT THE WAY I’VE DONE IT EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS, AND UP UNTIL THE DAY I RETIRE.
NEWARK, NJ – NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein announced today that the statewide transit agency is aggressively confronting current and future budget shortfalls that have arisen due to the severe national recession and the state’s $2.2 billion current-year budget gap, and $11 billion FY11 budget gap. Weinstein called for riders and the public to provide input to NJ TRANSIT while the agency develops the proper mix of solutions to balance the budgets while maintaining safe, reliable bus and train service.
Last week Governor Christie announced an 11-percent subsidy reduction, about $33 million, to NJ TRANSIT’s FY10 state operating subsidy as part of a number of steps the Governor is taking to close the state’s current budget shortfall.
“This reduction is painful but we understand the challenge the state is facing,” Weinstein said. “We know the Governor appreciates the importance of the transit system to New Jersey’s mobility, but we recognize that difficult measures are required to keep the state budget balanced.”
The budget outlook is even grimmer for FY11, which starts July 1 for both the state and for NJ TRANSIT. Weinstein said the state faces an $11 billion deficit next year and is not likely to be able to continue to provide its historic level of NJ TRANSIT operating assistance. NJ TRANSIT also is unable to depend on another round of federal stimulus and other one-time federal transportation funding, which was utilized to help bolster the operating budget by $150 million.
In addition, NJ TRANSIT is facing inflationary cost increases for things such as fuel and equipment parts, even as ridership declined systemwide by about four percent year to date, reducing fare revenue.
“In the transition report that I helped prepare as head of the transportation committee, we indicated that NJ TRANSIT would face a budget deficit next year (FY11) of about $200 million,” said Weinstein. “After reviewing more recent data, the projected operating deficit in FY11 is approaching $300 million.”
“NJ TRANSIT has an obligation to balance its budget and we cannot ask the state for help it cannot afford to give. We also cannot pretend otherwise or we risk making a bad situation much worse,” he said. “Balancing the NJ TRANSIT budget will take a combination of actions and innovative thinking about doing things differently. But we will not compromise on safety and service reliability, and we will not ask our customers to pay more at the fare box until we have identified every possible efficiency, and sacrificed internally,” the executive director emphasized.
Weinstein said NJ TRANSIT will be as inclusive as possible as it studies options to meet the financial shortfalls and will seek input from customers and stakeholders on any fare and service proposals. The agency will be reaching out to customers and the public over the coming days to solicit comments and suggestions.
To that end, we are announcing today a series of public hearings on the fare and service change proposals. The hearings will take place mostly at our facilities and will be held in Newark, Atlantic City, Trenton, Secaucus, Camden, Paterson, Hackensack, Manalapan and New York. An extended period of public comment will be available online on njtransit.com beginning in early March.
More detailed information on the proposals and the hearings will be made available in the next week or two on our website and through formal public notices statewide.
“Clearly, some of the adjustments we will have to make will be painful,” Weinstein said. “But we can emerge from this challenging time as a stronger agency, with a more stable financial picture, and continued pride in our service.”
As proprietors of Mac Murphy’s Restaurant in Wlisey’s Square for 22 years, we invite your readers who haven’t experienced a warm, friendly, and local restaurant to stop by.
Some may know us for our fabulous St.Patrick’s Day dinners including our famous corned beef & cabbage, shepherds pie and Beef & Guinness, which are on our everyday menu with American fare. But, our culinary chef also dishes up delicious lunch and dinner specials including many seafood items. Take out also available.
Our bar had a roaring fireplace, and we have happy hour all week from 4 to 6 with the best drink prices in town.
Tuesday nights we have a Team Trivia contest from 8 to 10 with prizes for the winning team.We have dart boards and also belong to a dart league. Really fun and free.
We have lived in town our whole lives and appreciate seeing old classmates, friends and newcomers stop by and support local businesses.
Scott Smith & Eileen Gilsenan-Smith Mac Murphy’s 6 Godwin Ave. 201-444-0500
Size Matters, when it comes to cheese and cookies that is. How so, you may ask? Cheese is a kind of a funny thing, on the wheel it ages gracefully, it breathes, it’s safe, it’s protected from the elements, resting in its natural state, it’s happy. A fresh cut from the wheel offers the best a cheese will taste. Purchase only what you plan to consume in the next couple of days, and you avoid what we call “supermarket cheese”. Wrapping in airtight plastic weeks on end, suffocates, and leads to off putting abominable ammonia flavors that develop. So, here’s my retailing genius for the week, get a taste, heck, get a couple of tastes, decide what you like, buy only what you need, get a fresh cut from the wheel…it’s the only way we sell. As for cookies, read on. Thanks
Tates Cookies…….Full 8oz package……only……$3.99 w/reward card Could it be true?…..Does a little specialty cheese & artisianal marketplace in Ridgewood, NJ have the lowest price in the country for these incredibly delicious award winning cookies from the Hamptons? How could that be? The gourmet supermarket chains are now offering the new and improved 7oz size (in the bigger package) for a dollar or two more! More cookie, (it’s all about the cookie)..lower price…go figure…..size matters!
———————————COUPON ———————————- ONE DAMN GOUDA DEAL!
The” Black Wax” 3 year Gouda
Only $1.99 per 1/4 lb w/25 points
Code # 4276 Approx size 1/4 lb, we cut as close to weight as possible, but hey cut us a break if we’re a couple of ounces off one way or the other. Reg price $14.99 lb Have a taste, then buy the size that matters! No limit while supplies last! Valid Thru Feb. 2010 —————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Deals that continue
Stonewall Kitchens……….save 10%………….. w/ your rewards card All products from the terrific portfolio, over 70 available, are included in the promotion. Check out the Black Bean Salsa, when added to a kosher dog it takes you to heights that seem surreal on the goodness scale. So simple, so perfect, become a hot dog genuis! Reg Sale Midnight Moon………………………$27.99………………..$15.99 Aged six months or more, this pale, ivory cheese is firm, dense and smooth with the slight graininess of a long-aged cheese. The flavor is nutty and brown-buttery, with prominent caramel notes. The wheel is finished in a beautiful black wax. Made in Europe for Cypress Grove and patrons of the CHEESE SHOP.
Reg Sale Champignon Mushroom Brie………….$16.99……………….$9.99 This cheese has reached the apex of readiness, and is in “super” form. Soft, creamy, lush, w/that mushroom scent and taste ….does it get any better?…..perfect! Reg Sale Jarlsberg………………………………….$9.99……………….$5.99 Cube it, dip it, slice it, melt it, pop it…feed the crowd….our new everyday low price!
Le Roule………BUY ONE GET ONE FREE w/50 points…….$5.99 Save 50% on this 5oz wheel of fresh gourmet spread able cheese rolled in garlic and herb. Looks good…..tastes good…easy! Reg Sale Lucini Parmigianino Reggiano………$29.99/22.99……………$14.99 Buy two only…….………….…………….$20.00 Buy three…… get four w/100 points…..$30.00 Buy four………get six w/200 points……$40.00 As we said before the best parm money can buy! Aged, organic, ask for a taste!
Carr’s Crackers………….Buy one box …$3.75…Two for ….$5.00 Famous and at a price equal to the “traders” of the world!
DELI We slice the top quality meats we use for our sandwiches. Have a taste when you order! Reg Sale Specials …per lb..Turkey Breast………….$7.99………..$3.99 Black Forest Ham………$9.99……….$4.99 Roast Beef.. home made..$9.99………..$5.99 Pastrami…………………$10.99.……..$5.99 Imported Ham w/herbs….$11.99………$9.99 Capocollo………………..$11.99………$9.99 Prosciutto di Parma…………………$25.99………$14.99 (not a mis-print) Speck (smoked Prosciutto)…………$25.99………$14.99
Watch for our Saturday Food Demo and Wine Tasting e-mail on Fridays Discovering good wine and food together!
Super Cellars 32 South Broad Street Ridgewood, NJ 07450
>So according to this “Teacher” an $80 plus million School Budget plus a $48 million School Construction referendum from a Village of 24,000 people for 5500 give or take students shows an “uncanny” lack of support by the Village of Ridgewood for teachers and Schools?
I left RPS years ago to teach elsewhere. The lack of support there is uncanny. What a bunch of complainers who have no idea what living on a teacher’s salary means. Do yourself a favor- leave while you can!
If teachers are scheduled to attend a professional workshop, then I agree with you 100%. In my district we would never dream of not attending. However, if you are referring to the NJEA convention- there we disagree. Having spent the last 10 years educating children and loving it, I myself have not been able to afford to go on a regular vacation. To that means, because my FAMILY COMES FIRST, I also cannot afford the convention. Food, accommodations, and travel are very expensive right now. If you can find a way to support a family of 4 on my salary (single parent by the way!) and still be able to go to these conventions I would love to hear it. The word convention means, “a gathering of people who have a common interest or profession.” It rarely has anything to do with professional development and for that I am not taking food out of the mouths of my children.
TOMS RIVER — It was easy to find a Ridgewood athlete at the North 1, Group 4 indoor track championships. All you had to do was look up.
There were Maroons flying higher than anyone at the Bennett Center on Thursday. Ridgewood boys and girls took first place in both the pole vault and the high jump, setting or tying meet records in the process.
Those results helped lead the Maroons to a second-place finish in the girls’ competition and a third-place finish for the boys. The Ridgewood boys scored 47 points. West Orange was the boys champion with 80 points. The Ridgewood girls finished with 41 1/2 points, well behind Randolph, which won the title with 105 points. Passaic Tech (34) and Clifton (26 1/2) came in third and fourth, respectively.
The top six finishers in each event advanced to the State group finals on Feb. 14 at the Bennett Center.
“All of us are super-dedicated. We practice every day like it’s a meet,” Ridgewood junior pole vaulter Kayla Polcari said. “There’s a lot of internal support.” Polcari was able to clear 11 feet 6 inches on her first attempt, breaking the group record that was shared by her sister, Ann. She scraped the bar as she went over it, but it bobbed up and down a few times before steadying as Polcari watched hopefully from the landing pad. Emily Urciuoli of Clifton, who also had a share of the record, finished second at 11-0, more than a foot below her Passaic County record.
John Wisener won the boys pole vault in a jump-off, clearing 13 feet in fewer attempts to decide the event. That broke a record that was shared by George Mena of Clifton, who cleared 12-6 in 2008.
Both high jump medals were going to the same house. Tommy DeVita won the boys event by clearing 6-6, tying the record set by Marcos McKenzie of Eastside in 2008. Sarah DeVita took the girls event with a jump of 5-0, tying a record equaled by Brittney Kilkeny of North Bergen in 2009. Their younger sister, Mimi, took sixth in the pole vault.
“We always come in knowing we’re one of the best teams and trying to compete at that level,” Tommy DeVita said. “It’s nice that we can have two people be among the elite in their events.”
Kennedy also swept an event, winning both of the 55 hurdles races. Keshon Brown edged Josh Major of West Orange to win the boys 55 hurdles in 7.56. Jaivairia Bacote won the girls race in 8.56.
Amber Allen of Passaic Tech had one of the top individual performances of the day. Allen won the 55-meter dash and the 400, coming back later to contribute to PCT’s first-place finish in the 1,600 relay. Allen doesn’t normally compete in the 55, but won the event in 7.53 seconds, edging Julisa Isom of Kennedy, who ran 7.54. Allen will run the 400 and the relay at the State Group 4 meet.
Jim Powell, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, is the author of FDR’s Folly, Bully Boy, and Greatest Emancipations
Added to cato.org on January 7, 2009
This article appeared on National Review (Online) on January 7, 2009
Which U.S. president ranks as America’s greatest depression fighter?
Not the fabled Franklin Delano Roosevelt, since unemployment averaged 17 percent through the New Deal period (1933–1940). What banished high unemployment was the conscription of 12 million men into the armed forces during World War II. FDR actually prolonged high unemployment: he tripled taxes; he signed laws that made it more expensive for employers to hire people, made discounting illegal, and authorized the destruction of food; and he launched costly infrastructure projects like the Tennessee Valley Authority that became a drag on states receiving TVA-subsidized electricity.
America’s greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.
Harding inherited Wilson’s mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.
Harding had a much better understanding of how an economy works than FDR. As historian Robert K. Murray wrote in The Harding Era, the man who would become our 29th president “always decried high taxes, government waste, and excessive governmental interference in the private sector of the economy. In February 1920, shortly after announcing his candidacy, he advocated a cut in government expenditures and stated that government ought to ‘strike the shackles from industry. . . . We need vastly more freedom than we do regulation.’ “
One of Harding’s campaign slogans was “less government in business,” and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and “excess” profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.
Powerful senators, however, favored giving bonuses to veterans, as 38 states had done. But such spending increases would have put upward pressure on taxes. On July 12, 1921, Harding went to the Senate and urged tax and spending cuts. He noted that a half-billion dollars in compensation and insurance claims were already being paid to 813,442 veterans, and 107,824 veterans were enrolled in government-sponsored vocational training programs.
In 1922, the House passed a veterans’ bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.
Harding’s Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility.
Federal spending was cut from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $5 billion in 1921 and $3.2 billion in 1922. Federal taxes fell from $6.6 billion in 1920 to $5.5 billion in 1921 and $4 billion in 1922. Harding’s policies started a trend. The low point for federal taxes was reached in 1924; for federal spending, in1925. The federal government paid off debt, which had been $24.2 billion in 1920, and it continued to decline until 1930.
Conspicuously absent was the business-bashing that became a hallmark of FDR’s speeches. Absent, too, were New Deal-type big government programs to make it more expensive for employers to hire people, to force prices above market levels, or to promote cartels and monopolies.
With Harding’s tax and spending cuts and relatively non-interventionist economic policy, GNP rebounded to $74.1 billion in 1922. The number of unemployed fell to 2.8 million— a reported 6.7 percent of the labor force— in 1922. So, just a year and a half after Harding became president, the Roaring Twenties were underway. The unemployment rate continued to decline, reaching an extraordinary low of 1.8 percent in 1926. Since then, the unemployment rate has been lower only once in wartime (1944), and never in peacetime.
The Roaring Twenties were a time of unprecedented prosperity. GNP expanded year after year without inflation. Productivity improved, and real wages increased. The stock market tripled. There was a dramatic expansion of the middle class. The Great Migration occurred during the 1920s, with some 7 million African-Americans moving north for better schools and job opportunities. Women had the vote. Millions of Americans began to buy cars, originally a luxury of the rich. People bought radios that enabled ordinary people to hear the finest entertainers in their own homes. Movies became popular. Frozen food made possible a more varied diet year-round. Doctors developed new medicines to fight deadly diseases like diphtheria and tuberculosis.
While Harding can hardly be considered a champion of laissez-faire economics (he supported tariffs, after all), the pro-growth policies he implemented are directly responsible for the astonishingly rapid growth in prosperity— and widely shared prosperity— America enjoyed throughout the Roaring 20s.
Unfortunately, Harding’s stunning success as a depression fighter was overshadowed by the Teapot Dome scandal that engulfed his administration after his death in August 1923. This resulted from “progressive” era conservation policies in which the government owned land known to have petroleum reserves— at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California. Since the beginnings of recorded history, government involvement in the economy has led to corruption, and Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall accepted bribes for leases enabling private companies to extract the oil. There wouldn’t have been a scandal if the reserves had been privatized, as more than 250 million acres of government land had been privatized during the previous century.
Rather than follow the model of FDR— whose policies raised only Americans’ spirits— President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression— before it had a chance to become Great.
>U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg taken to area hospital after fall
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg was taken by ambulance tonight from his Cliffside Park home after suffering a fall, his spokesman said. The 86-year-old Democrat was conscious when he was taken to the hospital “as a precautionary measure,” said the spokesman, Caley Grey. Grey said he did not know if Lautenberg had fallen inside the Bergen County condominium or whether he had suffered any injuries. Lautenberg was elected to his fifth term in the Senate in 2008, defeating former U.S. Rep. Richard Zimmer with roughly 55 percent of the vote.
He was thrust back into the political spotlight in recent months as his name became synonymous with two major political storylines in the state — the security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport and the Sean Goldman custody case. The Paterson-born Lautenberg was one of the most outspoken critics of the Transportation Security Administration after Haisong Jiang, a Rutgers graduate student, wandered beyond a security checkpoint last month to steal a kiss from his girlfriend, shutting down Terminal C for nearly six hours and accidentally exposing security flaws at one of the nation’s largest airports. Just a week before the airport incident, Lautenberg claimed he “used the hammer” of senatorial power to help Tinton Falls resident David Goldman regain custody of his son, Sean, ending an international custody dispute between the Monmouth County man and the Brazilian government which had dragged on for years.
Lautenberg returned Friday night from a whirlwind 11-hour trip to Haiti with a congressional delegation that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was scheduled to have a news conference today in Newark to discuss the trip and state efforts providing relief. (Queally/Jackson, Star Ledger/The Record)
