While some historians believe the Bonus Army disaster drove President Hoover out of office, others say the Bonus Riots were a factor in Hoover’s loss to FDR, but were not the complete reason for his defeat. Hoover had more millstones around his neck than the Bonus Army fiasco—first among them was his inability to get a handle on the Depression and his seeming “let them eat cake” attitude about possible solutions. (Donald J. Lisio, The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot.)
No way FDR and company wanted a repeat of that disaster. President Roosevelt hit the ground running when he assumed office, with his “New Deal”--an alphabet soup of new federal programs and agencies, which continue too be praised and vilified more than 70 years after their creation.
Immediately after his election, Roosevelt began to formulate policies to bring about relief from the economic hardships the American people were experiencing. These programs became known as the New Deal, a reference taken from a campaign speech in which he promised a "new deal for the American people." The New Deal focused on three general goals: relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform. (National Archives)
The new deal included programs in art, finance, employment. One of the first programs was called the Public Works Art Project. According to the National Archives:
PWAP was part of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), an experimental program in federal work relief, providing the unemployed with public service jobs during the bitter winter of 1933-34. PWAP employed artists to create works to embellish public buildings -- including one painting for each member of Congress as well as for public schools, orphanages, libraries, museums and practically every other type of public building. PWAP exhibitions in many cities were well-attended: 33,000 people showed up in a single day for an opening in Los Angeles. PWAP ended in April, 1934, along with the rest of the CWA. (Ibid)
Under FDR’s New Deal, artists, construction workers, photographers, and laborers went to work on the most ambitious works program in recorded history.
Under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration alone, Americans built 125,000 public buildings, 75,000 bridges, 8,000 parks, 800 airports, and more than 650,000 miles of roads, creating a modern American infrastructure and earning a paycheck all the while. (click here addition to the construction, arts and public works projects, FDRs New Deal version of a public pension for the elderly was and is his most controversial and influential piece of legislation.
Perhaps the most influential of Roosevelt's New Deal programs was the Social Security Act, which provided pensions to the elderly through a payroll tax. Altered over the years, Social Security has remained a significant source of support for elderly and disabled Americans. (Ibid)
Social Security and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are two of the remaining programs. Social Security remains as controversial in some quarters today, as it was more than 70 years ago. While conservatives continue to vilify the Social Security program as socialism, it has eliminated the hoards of impoverished elderly which lived and died destitute for generations in the United States for centuries, but remains a drain on the nation’s Treasury because the politicians just can’t keep from sticking their hands in the massive amount of wealth which the Social Security payroll taxes bring in.
Yet and still, between the various government regulatory agencies born during and after FDR’s New Deal, the American Economy remains regulated more than most conservatives and many liberals would like. Opponents to investment and business restrictions, pollution regulations, banking regulations and workplace safety and labor restrictions moan and complain that the government has too much control over what we produce, how we produce it, how long workers work and their working conditions.
What many are conveniently ignoring is the fact that the current mortgage crisis and the savings and loan crisis of the 1980’s can be directly linked to the LACK of regulation or the dilution of existing regulations. Deregulation, turning off the oversight, allowing industries to run wild has been costly to America.
Deregulation led to a Wild West atmosphere in the S & L industry. That fiasco cost the American taxpayer billions. Deregulation allowed Enron’s alleged crew of pirates to waltz through the nation’s energy industry and play the energy market like a fine tuned piano. That is, until their machinations and rickety deck of cards came crumbling down around their ears, along with the value of their company’s stock, the value of their employees’ retirement investments in the company, and the worth of their stockholders’ portfolios.
Now we are facing a historic transfer of wealth, as millions of property owners face foreclosure, eviction and possible homelessness. Many attribute the current mortgage crisis to deregulation, criminal conspiracy and a massive lack of financial literacy among the nation’s homebuyers.
The next 4 years will surely put American’s managed economy to the test. The question remains, how prepared are we to deal with the coming catastrophe and will this nation survive the aftermath? Even more importantly, will whomever takes the Oath of Office as the next President of the United States be up to the task of making the hard decisions necessary to put the nation back on track?
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