Throughout
American history there has always been a tremendous debate about the influences
of government and how large it should be. It is one of the major differences
between political parties and stirs controversy with every election. This is an
important subject because it is not only an important topic of debate within
society, but it also has tremendous influence over the function and structure
of the country.
Since
the Great Depression, much big government spending/programs has revolved around
New Deal Policy set by former President Roosevelt. This was a pinnacle move in
the United States’ history and has made a large impact of the direction of
political parties. Economists still debate to this day whether the New Deal or
World War 2 was the reason for the economy to bounce back after it had such a
disastrous collapse. Several people even say it was both, but the distinction
of whether or not people are for or against the New Deal and bigger government
has established modern day Democrats and Republicans.
The
notion of increasing government to help resolve issues within the United States
continues throughout American history. The administrations that have continued
such notions include former President Truman (the Fair Society), President
Johnson (the Great Society), and President Obama. These four presidents all
believed that increasing government would fix the problems at hand and by using
government effectively create equality, structure, and prosperity.
This
subject is excruciatingly important to those who research public
administration. This is a subject brought up for every election and asks, “How
much do people approve of bigger government spending?” It also asks things as
simple as “do you approve of public education?” These issues are important for
every election and may even sway how people vote in an election depending on
wording and approach. During former President Roosevelt’s campaigning, he
stated what many presidential candidates stated during the time and believed
that there should be little to no government. This of course ended up being the
exact opposite and the government gained a role bigger than it ever had before.
During
former President Roosevelt’s administration, the role of government took on a
whole new responsibility. The New Deal began in 1933 and was driven by
desperation to fix the Great Depression. The banks had collapsed due to a lack
of investing and rapid withdrawals of account holders forcing banks to declare
bankruptcy.
Just
within a year of Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration, a powerful conservative
opposition had launched an assault on the new administration’s programs (Holt
27). The conservatives consistently pushed for the New Deal to be revoked
because of their strong opposition of such policy. Conservatives believed that
government could never be a substitute for the hard work and initiative of free
men (Holt 27). Even Republican politicians of the time that had endorsed many
of the Roosevelt administration’s programs commonly stated that the New Deal
was going to destroy individualism and freedom. (Holt 28). There was plenty of
open opposition to the New Deal and Roosevelt along with his administration
would continuously describe these policies as “experimental” since old
ideologies had continuously failed the United States and something new was
needed if the United States was going to dig itself out of the Great Depression
(Holt 29).
The
Great Depression had created desperate times which resulted in desperate
measures creating policy that would temporarily be used to help the economy
bounce back. One of his legislative proposals was an economy bill that he
accompanied with a message deploring the tendency toward greater deficits and
blaming it for a variety of economic ills (Rosenman). As late as July 1933, President
Roosevelt referred to the Economy Act as “the base of the whole recovery plan,”
and the administration continued to praise itself for its economizing
activities throughout the year (Ibid). Many people showed concern and the
credibility was shaken after the president’s budget message in January of 1934
because people saw a massive deficit approaching for the coming fiscal year.
Debates
were a continuous thing throughout this time, but Roosevelt could not stress
enough the cooperation was absolutely essential for the country to press on and
if both political parties could not agree on these new policies to help resurge
the economy then everything would be undone and the policy would not work (Holt
33). At the heart of this initiative, according to New Dealers, lay the
National Recovery Administration, established in June 1933 (Holt 33). The NRA
did not represent a single economic strategy but rather provided a framework
within which a number of persuasions and interest groups competed for supremacy
(Hawley). It was the intention of New Dealers to create an economy that
promoted balance and somehow the various divisions of society had lost
connection with one another, which is problematic for any society and certainly
one of the contributing factors to the Great Depression.
The New Deal had tremendous influence
over the private sector that had just collapsed. As depicted by most American
historians in the 1950s, the “mixed economy” of the United States was a
superlative blend of two worlds, a system that combined rational direction,
organizational security, and stable growth with a large measure of democratic
decision making, individual liberty, and local and private initiative (Hawley
50). The private sector was highly warped and as a result of the New Deal was
interjected and redefined in order to make the system fair while also creating
a different structure of the private sector. Of course much of the earlier
policy and political interference was viewed as tyrannical because people still
had a since of individualism and freedom which meant not having the government
intervene on your business and making decisions for you and your business.
During
the New Deal lots of policies were enacted to alleviate the substantial amount
of poverty in the United States. This was the framework for modern day welfare
programs. One of the large programs that Roosevelt considered necessary was the
Social Security Act. This program was federally driven and was to be a way for
people to set aside money for retirement. This would also create an
unemployment insurance to help those who were jobless as well as welfare
benefits for the handicapped and needy children. Instead of the money being
gathered from simply taxing the public, it was taken from payroll taxes, which would
give a better sense of savings when Social Security taxes were taken out of
your paycheck knowing that it would be given back upon retirement.
When
analyzing President Johnson’s administration, he took a step further in the
idea of Democrats creating a larger government in order to ensure a well
functioning country. President Johnson’s administration was nicknamed “The
Great Society” because he was able to establish several new government programs
as well as expand government programs from the Roosevelt administration that
resulted in a large reduction of people in poverty and has established and
standard of how many people should be living in poverty since it has not
reached that level since his administration in 1964.
The difference
between President Obama and the other Presidential administrations was his
approval ratings. Many people believed that the way he went about things and
his actions were either wrong or unnecessary. The Affordable Care Act is still
a hot topic and many Republicans still campaign that they will have it repealed
if they are elected. Even when
analyzing food stamps, many people
believed that it was unnecessary/too easy to acquire food stamps/people were
simply taking advantage of the system to get benefits.
It
is understandable why people were upset about the Affordable Care Act because
that was simply legislation that was forced through by President Obama, not to
mention the fact that it is now mandatory to have health insurance, but why
were all of the other initiatives so poorly rated by public opinion?
When
other presidents, such as President Roosevelt and President Johnson, were faced
with high levels of poverty and increased government spending and programs,
their approval ratings were good. When President Obama increased food stamps
and related programs, many people thought it was bad, unnecessary, and a waste
of taxpayer dollars even though poverty levels/unemployment had skyrocketed by
the time President Obama was put into office.
Perhaps the
general outlook of the American people has become more partisan and believes
these programs are no good and will simply hurt the country. Maybe the general
public simply believes that these programs are not needed and capitalism should
just run its course.
It
is the great debate that continues to this day and is one of the reasons why
the parties are established the way they are. I chose this topic in particular
because it is essential to understand the dynamic of the United States of
America and its government. If the general American people are not informed or
simply misinformed on how these government initiatives have done tremendous
strides for the country during some of the most desperate times it is important
they are informed and understand that these have been the most effective ways
on record that The United States of America was able to combat poverty,
recession, and the Great Depression.
Bibliography
Public Papers of FDR. Rosenman.p 2:49-54. Acquired
April 22, 2014
Ibid., 2:296. William Woodin. James A. Farley. Franklin D
Roosevelt. New York Times. 11 December 1933.
The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly. Ellis
Hawley. Princeton, New Jersey 1968 p 19-146. Acquired April 20, 2014
The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson. Hawley. Texas
A&M University Press. Acquired April 20, 2014
Car Allowance Rebate System: What is the Car Allowance
Rebate System? U.S. Department of Transportation
Cash for Clunkers Wraps up with
Nearly 700,000 car sales and increased fuel efficiency, U.S. Transportation
Secretary LaHood declares program "wildly successful""
(Press release). U.S. Department of Transportation. 2009-08-26. Retrieved
2014-04-29
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