The Daily Cow

As the economy slowed down, Herbert Hoover, the president who presided over the most devastating moments of the Great Depression vowed to keep the government budget balanced. With size of the economy falling to roughly half of its 1929 levels by 1933, tax revenue similarly plummeted. With the economy having a hard enough time as it is, it doesn't make any sense for the government to inject less money into the economy.

Any Keynesian macroeconomist will tell you that in times of economic downturn the government should step in with both fiscal and monetary policies to prop up production.

Come 2008, we've already had a year of fierce monetary action that have proved ineffective to any significant degree. Although the national debt is scary (The national debt clock in New York ran out of digits just recently) now is not the time for spending cuts. Now is the time to fix our bridges, fund our education, and research into alternative energies.

McCain got it wrong when he answered that to address the current economic situation, "the first thing we have to do is get spending under control." Let's not pull another Hoover and pull us into the Greater Depression. Don't vote for someone who hasn't taken a university-level macroeconomics and economic history course.

It's the economy, stupid!