The Herbert Hoover Award

Unlike the popular phrase would have it, History never repeats itself; rather, History will be eerily parallelled. For example, the 2007 Depression does not repeat the 1929 Depression, but it is closely related. Instead of President Herbert Hoover talking about permanent prosperity, the present has President Barack Obama talking about the work needed to bring back permanent prosperity. Close, indeed, but not an exact repeat.

In honour of that parallelism, we present the Herbert Hoover Award. This Award will be given weekly to the individual (or group) which demonstrates ignorance of History by repeating the painfully obvious mistakes of the past. Without further ado, let us now turn to this week's winner of the Herbert Hoover Award! Presenting (drum-roll):

Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn

In a recent speech before the City Club of Chicago, Governor Quinn said that massive budget cuts were in store for the State, unless the legislature agrees to a 50% hike in the income tax.

"It’s no fun whatsoever to propose higher taxes on anyone, whether it’s families or business, but if we don’t do this, if we don’t repair our state and get it back in order we will regret it till kingdom come.” [source]

Apparently Governor Quinn is not aware that raising taxes during a depression, a credit crisis, rising unemployment, and social discord is a very bad idea. According to these excellent graphics from iTulip, the United States is suffering from a sharply rising unemployment rate. Illinois is not immune to the effects of the Depression. We have no doubt that, if this 50% income tax hike is passed, the citizenry of the State will suffer all the worse.

Congratulations, Governor Quinn. Your trophy is in the mail.