The new Congressional Visitors Center opens today–yesterday, I blogged about my article on the secular liberalism of the CVC in the current NRODT. In the article, I mention the CVC’s celebratory treatment of the New Deal:

A section on FDR describes the New Deal, in rah-rah fashion, as “a creative burst of energy that initiated economic recovery” during the Depression.

I had contacted Burt Folsom, author of New Deal or Raw Deal?, for a comment about this description. I didn’t have the space in the article to quote him, but here’s what he said by email:

That “creative burst of energy” almost ruined the country. It produced the NRA and AAA, for example, both of which were so poorly crafted and so outlandish in action that the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional (in the case of the NRA, by a 9-0 vote). Jacob Maged did not have his “confidence and prosperity” restored; he went to jail for giving a nickel discount to customers who wanted their pants pressed. That 100 days was the worst constitutional and economic debacle in U.S. history. The 79 percent top tax rate that ultimately resulted from that spending orgy was the highest in U.S. history and kept the high unemployment going for six more years. In the early months of 1939, six years after that miraculous 100 days, the U.S. still had 20 percent unemployment. So much for the promised “economic recovery” the panel boasts of having been achieved.

So there you have it: the congressional version of the New Deal vs. reality.