Comments on: Obama Reminds Alfalfa Club Members of Robert E. Lee

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Okay. It was $15,000 over a period of 60 years, not $150,000. But if you figure there might easily have been a million or more Civil War pension benificiaries between 1865 and 1925, the total government expenditure for pension benefits in those six decades had to have been in the billions with annual budgeting of several hundred million dollars. The point is that Social Security and the New Deal came into being in the vacuum created by a Civil War pension system that disappeared when the last Civil War veterans and their widows died. Would a social security system have even been conceivable without the experience the government acquired administering Civil War pensions?

By: Sherree Tannen

Sherree Tannen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:08:53 +0000

Good morning, Kevin,

I am trying to tailor my comment to fit the general flow of comments, but I must confess, I don’t understand comment 7, so I’ll just make my comment.

I don’t see Barack Obama as the next FDR, JFK, Lincoln, or anyone else. He is Barack Obama, a President like our nation has never seen before. Very fitting for a new century. Obama’s Presidency, coupled with the election of Michael Steele as the head of the Republican National Committee, can’t help but bring about real and needed change. For now, though, that change is in its infancy. My hope is that we really do become a nation united, and that the extremes of both parties quit running the country, before there is no country left to run.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:56:22 +0000

Has anyone done any research on just how much federal money was spent on Civil War pensions? My great great grandmother’s brother enlisted in February 1864 and was mustered out in January 1865 with a disability payment that exceeded his monthly pay as a soldier. His wife was still collecting $30/month when she died in 1928. The last six months of his enlistment were spent recuperating in a military hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. He spent March and April going through basic training in Madison, so his actual active duty consisted of May, June and most of July, culminating with a wound incurred in the Battle of Atlanta. His three months of active duty at age 19 resulted in more than $150,000 in pension income. Twenty year old soldiers in 1865 were 55 years old in 1900 and 85 in 1930. Can it be assumed then that the federal government had very few Civil War pensions still in payout when the stock market crashed in 1929? Is there a sense in which the New Deal was simply a redirection of the ‘big government’ created by the Civil War Pension system?

By: Charles Lovejoy

Charles Lovejoy — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:29:36 +0000

Is it just me? I see Obama’s presidency in line with FDR, dont see the Lee or Lincoln comparison. Massive economic chaos , banks failing , employment looking like there is no end in sight, international wars on the horizon ect ect. Im seeing Obama more of a potential FDR than any of the rest.

By: Kevin Levin

Kevin Levin — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:13:35 +0000

It’s too perfect. Good luck on the essay.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:10:44 +0000

I’m savouring it! I saw that Grimsley mentioned this on facebook this morning, and I had commented, now, over to Levin to tell us what it all means, and here I find you have done so. Thanks! And thanks for the small distraction from my really terrible essay.

By: Kevin Levin

Kevin Levin — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:50:24 +0000

Hilarious, but be nice.

By: Woodrowfan

Woodrowfan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:49:18 +0000

that “wompf” sound you just heard was JosephineSouthern’s head exploding.