George Will: 'You Couldn't Build the Hoover Dam Today Because' Environmentalists 'Would Stop It'

August 21st, 2011 1:41 PM

As government spending supporters in the media press for a new, bolder stimulus plan to get the economy going, they love to refer to the Depression Era Hoover Dam as a shining moment in Keynesian economics.

When this surfaced on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, George Will marvelously noted, "You couldn't build the Hoover Dam today because they'd discover a snail darter in the Colorado River and would stop it" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

JAKE TAPPER, HOST: Liz, how much of the current economic woes that we're going through right now do you think are the fault of domestic politics in this country? And how much is it matters that are out of our hands?

LIZ CLAMAN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Well, we don't have jobs recovering, and everybody knows that, and that is a huge issue. So the speech is so highly anticipated at this point. We didn't really just get much clarity from David Axelrod on what it's going to say, but people are saying, where is our Hoover Dam moment?

Moments later:

TAPPER: We only have 10 seconds, George. You have a final word?

GEORGE WILL: You referred to the Hoover Dam, great achievement of the '30s. You couldn't build the Hoover Dam today because they'd discover a snail darter in the Colorado River and would stop it.

In fact, although MSNBC's Rachel Maddow uses the Hoover Dam in one of her "Lean Forward" commercials, she would be the first of the environmental media demanding an immediate halt to such a project if any species were found to be endangered by its construction.

Isn't it marvelous how Will can so perfectly expose liberal media hypocrisy in just ten seconds?

Bravo, George. Bravo!