The Harding example:
Warren Harding was sworn in as president on March 4, 1921, ...., “Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much from the government and at the same time do too little for it.”[109]
After the election, Harding had announced he was going on vacation, and that no decisions about appointments would be made until he returned to Marion in December.
Known as the Forgotten Depression of 1920, it resulted from the progressive policies implemented by President Woodrow Wilson from 1913 to 1921. The $14.5 trillion debt today is the result of progressive control of Congress, the White House and the Judiciary since the days of ultra-progressive Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Wilson advocated what later became known as Keynesian economics. Adherents to this philosophy believe that if the task of running the economy is given to them, they, and they alone can run the government smoothly, increase prosperity and avoid economic downturns that are so painful to society. That was a key justification for the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve in 1913, also during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency.
The whiplash effect of Wilson’s wild increase in non-defense spending and tax increases resulted in the 1920-1921 depression. In 1913 federal spending was 2.0 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP); about the same as the preceding one hundred years. During the Wilson administration, it jumped to over 7 percent. At the end of Wilson’s tenure the non-defense federal budget was nearly 20 times higher than when he started. Wilson also raised the income tax rate from 7 percent to 73 percent for the rich to supposedly pay for it.
By 1920 unemployment had jumped to nearly 12 percent,[a] and GNP declined 17 percent – the same general pattern as experienced from 2008-2011. In spite of the Federal Reserve, or because of it, the economy was a disaster.
Warren Harding was elected President in 1921. His very anti-Keynesian methods took the boot off the throat of the American people by slashing taxes from 73% to 25% by 1925. Taxes were cut for lower income brackets starting in 1923. Harding also cut the government’s budget nearly in half between 1920 and 1922. The results? The national debt was reduced by one-third. By 1922 unemployment was down to 6.7 percent and by 1923 it had dropped to 2.4 percent. The depression had vanished and The Roaring Twenties were launched.
“Warren Harding was elected President in 1921. His very anti-Keynesian methods took the boot off the throat of the American people...”
Ol’ Warren wasn’t nearly as anti-Key and anti-Progressive to attempt to repeal the disasters of his predecessors. Like all politicians since they work to ‘tweak’ the system for as little blow-back from the People from whom they ripped their Freedom, Liberty, property and Rights.