I hope OhZone doesn't mind if I borrow his graphs, but it was the Conservative Congress that lengthen the Great Depression when they tried to balance the budget back in 1937.
And if we didn't retaliate after we were attacked do you really think the Allies would have been able to defeat The Nazis and the Japanese? Would you really like to live in a world were The Axis crushed Europe and Russia and set it's sights on North America because they knew we would cower and fold just like we did after your ideal version of Pearl Harbor?