Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, ‘Of course we believe all these things; we believe in Social Security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them, we will do more of them, we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.’
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, ridiculing his 1936 Republican opposition in front of the Democratic State Convention in Syracuse, New York. FDR’s words are as relevant now as they were then, considering that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are promising voters the impossible: that they’ll keep the safety net in place, boost defense spending, and lower taxes… all while shrinking the deficit!
