The Profits and Loss (of New Dealers)
Hat-tip to Noodlefood
The Profits and Loss
By Berton Braley
From New Deal Ditties: or, Running in the Red with Roosevelt, 1936
When "planned economy" first began
It looked like a swell "idea" –
Until we learned it had no plan
And wasn’t economee.
For the taxes rise and the budget’s shot
And the New Deal costs are met
By spending money we haven’t got
For things that we never get.
The Billions roll in mighty stream,
A regular tidal flood,
With the net result that each spending scheme
Bogs down in a sea of mud.
When plans and programs go all to pot
Do the New Deal planners fret?
Why no, they think up a brand new lot
Of schemes to spend what we haven’t got
For things we will never get!
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