Staying Cool This Summer? Thank a Conservative

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems the weather this summer has been extraordinarily hot. With daily temperatures reaching into the nineties, I know I join many of you in being thankful for the air conditioning that provides the needed relief to get us through our hot southern summers.

Our society is blessed with many great inventions that afford us comforts and conveniences beyond the wildest imagination of those living just 100 years before us. It’s easy to get so busy enjoying these features of everyday modern life that we lose sight of how far our country has progressed in its short 239year history.

I believe it is important to occasionally reflect on this journey, the pioneering individuals who invented these technologies, like Willis Carrier and the air conditioner, as well as the policies in place during their creation.

In the early 1900s a young and enterprising man by the name of Willis Carrier was approached by individuals in the printing industry to invent a device that would pull humidity out of their print shops so the newly printed ink could dry faster.

In 1903, Carrier succeeded in not only inventing a device that would pull the humidity out of a room, but would cool the room as well. It was the second feature of this device that Carrier thought would change the world. As much as Carrier believed in his new device, he also recognized the country’s business climate was not one conducive to the risk he would be taking to try and start an entirely new industry.

Fortunately, for Mr. Carrier and all of us going through this hot summer our country’s business climate would change before Mr. Carrier gave up on his new invention.

In 1920, America was winding down from the First World War and ramping up for a Presidential election. Many brave soldiers returned home from the war only to discover there were no jobs available for them; the country’s high unemployment rate was a major focus for the 1920 election.

While there were many ideas offered as potential solutions to the unemployment crisis, the 1920 election was largely divided by those who felt government needed to grow through large spending projects designed to employ citizens and those who felt growing the private sector by lowering taxes and cutting regulations was the best way to drive down unemployment.

Fortunately for our country, Warren Harding, running on a platform of cutting taxes and reducing govern- ment was elected as our nation’s 29th President.

Once in office, President Harding kept his campaign promises and began shrinking government. In his first and final two years of his Presidency (cut short due to his death from heart disease), Harding cut the federal budget from $6.5 Billion to $3.1 Billion.

Following, his spending cuts Harding cut the maximum tax rate from 78 percent to 25 percent and scaled back tax rates for all citizens. Harding’s conservative approach to governing worked. His spending and tax cuts enabled existing businesses to expand and provided the necessary business climate to turn inventors like Willis Carrier into entrepreneurs. Millions of new private sectors jobs were added and the unemployment rate fell from 12 percent to 2 percent.

Harding’s conservative approach worked and jump-started the roaring 20’s. Over the next decade inventions like Willis Carrier’s air conditioner, the refrigerator, washing machine, radio, and even sliced bread sprang up fundamentally transforming lives of those in the 1920’s and today.

How different our society would be today were it not for the individuals who took the risk to first pioneer these modern conveniences and for the conservative small government approach championed by Harding.

Unlike President Obama and his Democrat allies, I don’t share the belief that individuals can only build a successful business with government assistance. I know there is no secret recipe to success and that success only comes with hard work and the kind of luck you make at 1 or 2 in the morning while your competitors sleep.

I also know that high taxes and burdensome government regulations can kill the dreams of even the most talented entrepreneur. The journey of Willis Carrier and his air conditioner should certainly serve as a reminder of this truth.

So, when you walk into your perfectly cooled home sweating from the short walk outside from car to front door, grab a cup of sweet tea, be grateful for entrepreneurs like Willis Carrier and thank a Conservative.