Seven Presidential Speeches on the Economy That Had Little Effect
- Posted on September 13, 2011 at 7:43pm by
Becket Adams
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President Barack Obama gave a speech before a joint session of Congress this week, in which he laid out his job creation plan. There have been only seven speeches about economic and business issues before a joint session of Congress since the end of The Great Depression. 24/7 Wall St. has reviewed these speeches and found that they had virtually no effect on the economy, despite the detailed proposals.
Of the seven addresses, two were about labor trouble, and both by Harry Truman: one about the railroad strike in 1946, and the other about the steel strike in 1952. Neither speech was effective. The strikes were settled by labor and management irrespective of the speeches. As a matter of fact, the railroad strike ended the day of the president’s speech.
The balance of the speeches addressed different crises such as soaring energy costs, inflation, and recession. Each of these speeches offered specific road maps for economic improvement. While each president gave a broad description of the trouble, most offered a specific set of solutions. Rarely were any of the plans adopted, either because of political opposition or because the problems were resolved through other methods.
It is practically impossible to trace any recovery to the presidential proposals in almost every case. Those that were enacted into law were so substantially changed by Congress that they barely resembled the presidents’ suggestions.
24/7 Wall St. reviewed all of the presidential addresses to joint sessions of Congress from The Great Depression through the present to identify all those that dealt primarily with the economy.
1. Truman’s Railroad Strike Message
President Harry Truman
Date: May 25, 1946
Inflation: 8.3
GDP 1 yr. growth: -10.9 (2nd worst since Great Depression)
Unemployment: 3.9
On May 25, 1946, Truman said: “I come before the American people tonight at a time of great crisis. The crisis of Pearl Harbor was the result of action by a foreign enemy. The crisis tonight is caused by a group of men within our own country who place their private interests above the welfare of the nation.” The “group of men” happened to be the hundreds of thousands of coal workers that were on strike and the railroad workers that were on the verge of doing the same. Believing the unions were going too far by threatening to strike, Truman demanded the workers settle or he would implement measures such as drafting strikers into the armed forces. Mid-speech, Truman received word that the potential railroad strike had been settled. Days later, the coal strike ended as well. The president would face several more labor disputes during his two terms in office.
2. Truman’s Marshall Plan Speech
Date: November 17, 1947
Inflation: 14.4
GDP 1 yr. growth: -3.4
Unemployment: 3.9
On November 17, 1947, President Truman gave a speech to the 80th Congress, asking to give aid to France, Italy and Austria and to address the country’s rising inflation rate. “Today, inflation stands as an ominous threat to the prosperity we have achieved. We can no longer treat inflation–with spiraling prices and living costs–as some vague condition we may encounter in the future. We already have an alarming degree of inflation. And even more alarming, it is getting worse,” Truman said. The president went on to address the rising costs of specific items, noting that the average price for all cost of living items had increased 23 percent from the middle of 1946. His efforts were largely resisted by the 80th United States Congress, a group referred to by Truman as the “Do Nothing Congress.”
3. Truman On The Steel Industry Dispute
Date: June 10, 1952
Inflation: 1.9
GDP 1 yr. growth: +3.8
Unemployment: 3.0
In 1952, the United Steelworkers of America, working at U.S. Steel and nine other companies, began to strike, demanding wage increases. Prior to his speech, Truman had nationalized the steel industry—a decision that was quickly overturned by the courts. In his speech, Truman asked that the Congress authorize government operation of the steel mills. This request was not granted and the steelworkers were on strike for 53 days, at which time they reached an agreement with management.
President Richard Nixon
4. Nixon On Economic Policy
Date: September 9, 1971
Inflation: 4.4
GDP 1 yr. growth: +3.4
Unemployment: 5.9
In 1971, the United States was in the process of pulling its forces from Vietnam. It was also entering its worst economic period in years, one from which it would struggle to pull itself for more than half a decade. Unemployment was at a ten-year high at the time, and GDP had failed to grow for the first time since 1958. President Nixon addressed Congress, begging for bipartisan support. “As the dangers of war recede, the challenges of peace increase. It is customary for a President to ask the Congress for bipartisan support in meeting the challenges of war. Today I come before you to ask bipartisan support in meeting the challenges of peace.” In his speech, Nixon pleaded the Congress to cut taxes on vehicles, subsidize job growth, and cut income taxes. The income tax cuts were not meaningful, and the jobs were not created.
President Gerald Ford
5. Ford’s Economic Discussion Date: October 8th, 1974
Inflation: 11.0
GDP 1 yr. growth: -0.6
Unemployment: 5.6
In 1974, after a brief period of prosperity, the economy took a serious turn for the worse. For the first time since 1958 the country’s GDP contracted. More worrisome than this was that inflation had jumped to 11 percent from the previous year. In his 1974 speech to Congress, Ford stated his desire simply and clearly: “We must whip inflation right now.” He wanted to deregulate the economy to increase proficiency and to enact a temporary tax surcharge of 5 percent. His requests were not granted. The next year, unemployment jumped to 8.5 percent, the highest since The Great Depression. Worse still, inflation continued to rise an additional 9 percent. Economic conditions continued to deteriorate until a year later when Congress enacted a tax cut proposal and a tax rebate. It is this rebate, not Ford’s effort, that is credited with ending the recession.
President Jimmy Carter
6. Carter’s Energy Discussion
Date: April 20th, 1977
Inflation: 6.5
GDP 1 yr. growth: +4.6
Unemployment: 7.1
In 1977, the U.S. was between energy crises. The first was the result of the Arab oil embargo in 1973, and the second came in 1979 during the Iranian revolution. Oil prices, which were less than $3 a barrel before 1970, reached $10 a barrel by the mid-1070s. They would more than double by the beginning of the 1980s. With soaring fuel costs on the nation’s mind, Carter had addressed the nation with a 10-point proposal to reduce the U.S.’s energy usage in the long term. Carter’s suggestions ranged from developing alternative energy sources, including wind power, to avoiding subsidies that artificially reduce energy costs. Most of these proposals failed to get off the ground, and the vast majority of them have not been enacted to this day.
7. Reagan’s Speech on Economic Recovery and Inflation
President Ronald Reaga
Date: April 28th, 1981
Inflation: 10.3
GDP 1 yr. growth: +2.5
Unemployment: 7.6
The nation faced particularly high inflation in the early 1980s. To address this problem, as well as the moribund state of the economy, President Reagan delivered a speech to Congress. In that speech he pushed for cutting government spending and tax rates, saying, “Our government is too big, and it spends too much.” As a result, the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was passed, albeit to little effect. The economy soon fell further into recession. Inflation remained high and unemployment increased, peaking at an annual rate of 9.7 percent in 1982. The recovery, which started two years later, was the result of Federal Reserve policy and defense spending.
(24/7 Wall St./The Blaze)
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Comments (34)
Tyler520
Posted on September 15, 2011 at 7:26pmOh, these speeches most definitely DID affect the economy: they made them much worse.
It is as if this guy plans his useless speeches every time the economy manages to get back on its feet, just to send it back into a tailspin.
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on September 15, 2011 at 8:37amI don’t know if, in the past, you can judge a president based on the statistics during his term. I think you have to look at what the individual pushed thru the system and became either a law or how he directed the agencies in performing their duties. It takes years to determine if it was good or bad. Statistics reflect past action…there is about, or there use to be, a 6 year lag.
But under Obama it’s a totally different story. The old process was severely compressed by his abrogation of the duty to submit a budget to congress which causes congress to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort to come up with a budget…they typically only issue continuing resolutions till the president comes up with a budget. Obama created chaos by changing that process, issued tons of EOs, new regulations etc and should be held accountable for that failure.
I’m still waiting for the whistle-blowers. They are there but they are fearful. Understood, but it is now time for them to come forward. JIMHO
Report Post »simply one voice
Posted on September 15, 2011 at 8:11amPresident BHO – “Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire.” That is the totality of everything that has ever exited out of this con artists mouth.
Report Post »MiCurmudgeon
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:28pm“You need leaders who will put country before party,” Barack Obama with his finger crossed behind his back during a political speech 9/14/11.
Report Post »jackact
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:18pm7 teleprompter speeches….zip, nada, nothing.
Report Post »Its Cap & Trade he really wants.
He’s not getting it. Obama Care will be repealed.
Crony Corporate Greening will fail. Green jobs will never appear.
I wonder what happens when he cannot repay the ‘favors’ he promised to his benefactors.
Union thugs, historically sore losers, will have a BIG score to settle.
They settled with JFK & RFK.
Rowgue
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 4:18pmWhy would a speech have an effect on the economy? Talking about something isn’t going to change anything except perhaps some peoples opinions. Talk is just talk, only actual real policies and practices will have an actual effect on the economy.
The only reason anyone would have to think that a speech would actually change anything is if they are basing that theory on the fallacy that what people think is what actually drives the economy. If people have money and are doing well they will spend it. If they don‘t have money and aren’t doing well they’re not going to be spending money. Their opinion of what the health of the entirety of the nations economy is has no bearing on whether people spend money or not.
Report Post »bruce_baker
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 2:13pmDoes this mean that some of you doubt that “Son of Stimulus” will work?
The basic problem is a difference in world view. The Democrats believe that the Federal budget is unlimited. That’s partly because they believe that the “rich” have an unlimited supply of money for the government to tax. Obama wants to cut the tax deduction for charity because the Democrats believe that all charity should be done by the government. They‘re mostly atheists who don’t care if all the churches close their doors, and by the way, what can they do to help further that effort?
Most of these “social programs” that they‘re always touting didn’t even exist before Jimmy Carter, and none existed before FDR. Gasp! America must have been a terrible place to live back then!
“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.” – Ronald Reagan
The question for 2012 becomes, “Do you want your children to live in a communist country, or not?”
Report Post »AFPhys
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 12:16pmI don‘t recall the speeches before the ’60s, and agree with the assessment of all of those since EXCEPT for the “reason for recovery” after Reagan’s. The Dem congress changed his tax cut proposal from an immediate 30% cut to a “phase in” cut over three years – 5%, 10%, 10%. I agreed with economists at the time that phase-in would delay the recovery since people and business would delay taking into account the new rates. That turned out to be true. It is also true that it took some time for the Fed’s actions to wring the huge inflation out of the economy, as the article takes into account. . I believe the recovery would have occurred earlier had the cuts been made as Reagan proposed.
Report Post »AFPhys
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 12:30pmhmm… “would delay taking into account the new rates.” Bad phrasing, sorry. … a more clear way to say that is “would not react much to new lower rates until the full 25% cut was in force”. Simple logic: why would anyone make a decision to do some investment this year if he knew that he could gain a bonus percentage by simply delaying the risky decision for one year?
Report Post »JRook
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 2:06pmHaving been employed at the time I can tell you that Reagan did not cut taxes, he reduced income tax rates. Overall tax burden went up due to modifications he made to a number of deductions and increases in fees, and state and local tax burdens went up as a result of cuts in federal spending. He also was the first president to add $1 trillion to the federal deficit, mostly in defense spending to jump start the economy through his supply side economics. His approach was copied by a number of Republican Governors such as Whitman in NJ who ran on cutting taxes, cut income tax rates, but the overall impact to the average household was $23 a year before the impact of increased state fees was factored in.
Report Post »bankerpapaw
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 11:38amObama is a bobble-head who turns to watch one teleprompter, then turns to watch the other one.
Report Post »All the while saying absolutely nothing.
malcolmpats
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 11:01amFrom reading this, it seems to me we don’t need a president. A president might as well be a figure head who just gives speeches that nobody listens to, or if they do, they do the opposite.
Report Post »WilliamCustisBuffington
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:06amOBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM BUYS VOTES WITH $789 BILLION “STIMULUS” GIVING MONEY MOSTLY TO HIS SUPPORTERS WHILE STIMULUS FAILS MISERABLY FOR THE REST OF US
Report Post »Obama has Purchased Votes with Stimulus Dollars!
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University conducted a study has found that almost three quarters of all the stimulus dollars spent through the start of 2010 has gone to congressional districts held by Democrats. There has shown to be absolutely no relation for the stimulus based upon the number of un-employed worers in the congressional district receiving the stimulus cash.
Obama and his party faithful have purchased votes by throwing away $789 Billion dollars which had absolutely no effect upon the un-employment numbers and the deep recession we are presently on the horns of.
NOTES:
Drew Zahn, “Is Obama’s $789 Billion Buying Votes Instead of Jobs?”, World Net Daily.Com, December 19, 2009. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=119441
Caveat Emptor,
Wm. C. ‘Billy Cus’ Buffington, WV
Arc
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:03amSince Wall St is so efficient at determining what DOES NOT work, why not use their own statistics to point to any actions that CLEARLY made a positive difference.
1. Are their statistics that would DIRECTLY IDENTIFY the problem by looking at certain stocks, futures, market trends, actions that produced positive results. Of course, hoping for a collective agreement on interpretation of said statistics would be out of the question. Whats wheat and not chaff, whats corn and not shucks or WHAT IS TRUTH, not some BILL written for energy production yet filled with totally unrelated BILLS introduced by CORRUPT POLITICIANS.
2. Consideration for the citizens of the Republic take a backseat to GREED, ARROGANCE and SELF PROMOTION>
Report Post »Jim in Houston
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:09amDetroit paperboy: Don’t blame me, I voted for the old guy and the hotty,
Report Post »Jim in Houston
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:06amMy late father said it best: “If bull sh#t was music Obama would be symphony.”
Report Post »GERATMO
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:32amObama blames congress for all his failed poicies then begs them to pass his STIMULUS bill. We all know that if congress does not pass this, they will be blamed again for his failures. The definition of insane is trying somthing over and over and expecting different results.
Report Post »heywhat1
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:15amwhat about obummers failed economic speaches????? he has several.
Report Post »king jack rabbit
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:55ampray that the young voters get some sense this time around, and don t support oboma crap
Report Post »king jack rabbit
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:52amabout support, pray the young people of this nation don t vote for oboma crap
Report Post »ColoradoMaverick
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:49amThe only thing Obama has ever been good at is standing in front of a teleprompter and talking. Well American is tired of talk. We need action. Obama has always been an empty suit and his fancy speeches cannot get him out of the hole he has dug for himself. Even the liberals are turning on him. Young people in America who thought it would be “cool” to vote for the first African-American are now starting to realize that their future is bleak because of his policies. They are starting to realize that even with a college degree, the best jobs they can get are waiting tables.
We don’t want talk, we want action and the first action should be to remove Obama from office. Let him go back to being a professor where he can talk, talk, talk.
Report Post »Jamestownrd
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:20amCowards continue to support obama…unable to admit what they have done
Report Post »Jamestownrd
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:17amCan you remember the 98% of an entire population are in fact idiots
Report Post »Jamestownrd
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:16am98% of negroesvoted obuma..I never said all blacks are idiots..just 98% of them!
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:20amjamestownrd’s comments do not reflect my opinions.
Report Post »ExTex
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:35amWell now it’s 8 speeches. BO’s recent speech to congress laying out his “recovery plan” was little more than a warmed over version of his stimulus speech in 2009 at half the price! And, like the previous 7 mentioned above, will have zero effect on congress or the economy. Sadly, we’re likely to have to struggle for another 1.5 – 2yrs until we get the Repulican (adults) majority back in both congress and the senate and put a president in office that has any clue about what being an executive means.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 4:37amOOOoohhhh, you said the “S” word….Stimulus. It’s not stimulus, it’s a jobs program, you must not have gotten the memo….
Report Post »Jamestownrd
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:13amHow can you pass the bill NEGROE.. there aint no bill that is even written yet…
Report Post »Sheepdog911
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:14amThe only effective speech Obama has ever given was the one that brought him to the national stage. Passing gas is more effective than anything he has to say about anything.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:19amJamestownRd’s comments do not reflect my own.
Report Post »MinnesotaMARINE
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:33amWhat will be the Presidents name that WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCES? Let him stand up now so we can see him.
Report Post »freedomofspeech
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:19amlove the history info. I had to chuckle when I read this, I thought (gee, all the bad luck must be Bush’s fault).
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 4:06amI cant even stand to hear obama speak, he sounds
Report Post »like the teacher on charlie brown… Wahwahwah
His windbaggyness is wearing thin and the emporer
Has no clothes!!!!! Wtf were we thinking ?