On Monday night [...] Bachmann took to the House floor and paid tribute to the economic policies of Calvin Coolidge and the "Roaring 20s" (the era that ended with a massive monetary contraction and the Great Depression). One particular line really does stand out, though -- saying Franklin Roosevelt turned a recession into a depression through the "Hoot-Smalley" tariffs.Or was it Hoobert Heever?
Here's what really happened: When Franklin Roosevelt took office, unemployment was already about 25%. And the tariff referred to here was actually the Smoot-Hawley bill, co-authored by Republicans Sen. Reed Smoot of Utah and Rep. Willis Hawley of Oregon, and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.
It should also be noted that Smoot-Hawley was passed in 1930, three years before FDR took office and was repealed in 1934, a year after he was sworn in.
On top of her mistaking who was president in 1976 when she noted the "coincidence" of a swine flu outbreak when a Democrat was in the White House, it sounds like someone should slip her a copy of the New Big Book of U.S. Presidents - A Young Reader's Guide to the Presidency; it's got awesome pictures and simple words so she can understand it. Better yet, there's the American Presidents Coloring Book so she can keep busy and out of trouble.
Is it any wonder that conservatives think Stephen Colbert is serious when you have lunatics like Ms. Bachmann running around?
