The saying “feed a cold, starve a fever” is as relevant to an economy as it is to one’s health.

Unfortunately, during the housing, banking and outsourcing fever that culminated in the near-total collapse of the American economy in 2008, the economic powers-that-be fed, instead of starved, the economic fever. Now that we are in an economic downturn, the “cold” stage, those same conservatives who “fed the fever” are continually proposing the we “starve the cold.”

The only means available to us to determine whether an economic philosophy works, is to analyze the history of that economic practice, judging its strengths and weaknesses. Most historians agree that President Roosevelt’s jobs programs combined with World War II, which cost a ton of money to blow up things and kill people, brought America out of the Great Depression. By choice and necessity, Roosevelt fed the cold; he spent!

The “Party of No” has barred all attempts to feed the cold, to give the American economy an infusion. When a tire blows out on your work vehicle, your first action is to replace the tire, not worry about how to pay for it.

Political campaign rhetoric is no way to make good economic decisions or operate a government. The continuation of major tax breaks and the refusal to invest in our worn out infrastructure by congressional default may sound good politically, but is unwise economic policy.

Dick Phay

Prineville