The difference is that today’s crisis was partially caused by the government apparatus and using the government to solve it is likely to prolong the crisis as some of the economists Sal cited indicate.

Creating a new bureaucratic structure which is historically doomed to fail will seriously decrease our faith that the government can do anything right, leading to serious societal jitters which may result in violence like the jitters of the 1930s or those of the late 1850s did.

Remember the Reagan Revolution only happened because government-as-the-solution policies of the New Deal and Great Society had failed miserably by 1980. Unfortunately, many of today’s voters don’t remember Jimmy Carter — hence they have no idea how bad things can actually get. The historian in me gets worried when the party likely to sweep in three weeks starts enthusiastically talking about the failed New Deal as a model for a solution to the current crisis.