Republican Party of Coolidge, Hoover and Romney

Here are the scintillating thoughts of the two presidents who ushered in and oversaw the Great Depression beginning with the stock market crash in 1929.  Their views are indistinguishable from those of Mitt Romney and most of today’s Congressional Republicans.

CALVIN COOLIDGE (President 1923-29)

 “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”

“Civilization and profit go hand in hand.”

“Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

 “There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means”

“Patriotism… means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.”

“Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character”

“When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.”

HERBERT HOOVER (President 1929-33)

"The sole function of Government is to bring about a condition of affairs favorable to the beneficial development of private enterprise."  [This would have come as a very big surprise to the Founding Fathers]

"We must not be misled by the claim that the source of all wisdom is in the government."

"The budget should be balanced not by more taxes, but by reduction of follies." [Like Social Security, education and health care]

"We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation."

"The course of unbalanced budgets is the road to ruin."

"Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die."

“Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.”

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.”

“We have not yet reached the goal but... we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.”

[The economy tanked by 42% during Hoover’s Great Depression and at it’s peak unemployment was 24%.  Poverty was unprecedented in American history.  Many people lived in "Hoovervilles" which were groups of shacks. Divorce rate increased 175% and suicides increased 150%. For many Americans, daily life was a struggle for food and shelter.]

“Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.”

“When the war closed we were challenged with a peace-time choice between the American system of rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines - doctrines of paternalism and state socialism.”

“All men are equal before fish.”

WELCOME TO MITT ROMNEY'S REPUBLICAN PARTY!