Roosevelt's Programs example essay topic

"New Deal' And "Great Society': Major Strides Against " New Deal' And "Great Society': Major Strides Against Poverty Throughout time people have been affected by the harshness of poverty and economic strain. It has always seemed to be difficult for the average American to prosper if in fact that person did not come from previous wealth. Our great country prides on the idea of capitalism and the rights to freedom and insists that anyone who puts forth the effort can and will succeed. This has and always will be a debatable issue. The other realism is the role of the federal government and the capacity they work to ensure each and every American the right to become successful. Two Presidents come to mind when I think about the ways in which the government wishes to help the unfortunate.

They are Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. These two administrations are the landmarks to the many programs and policies we see today that battle the likes of poverty and economic downfalls. The Great Depression Industrialization met its first and perhaps greatest obstacle in October 1929, when the stock market crashed that inevitably leads to the Great Depression. The Depression lasted over a decade and affected world affairs by questioning the validity of Capitalism, Democracy and industrialization.

The underlying causes of the Depression were a direct result of overproduction. When the market crashed, investors and bankers cut consumer credit, which reduced consumer-buying power. Sales declined; therefore factories had to cut back on production. This led to a large reduction in the number of workers.

With more people unemployed, purchasing power plummeted and goods did not move. Factories found themselves producing next to nothing because there was no one buying. This led to more layoffs and factory closing which further reduced the purchasing power of consumers. This continued for four years until 1932. President Hoover believed that business could bring itself out of the Depression. He did not believe that the federal government should in any way help the American citizen.

He argued that federal intervention "would undermine the character of the proud American citizen. ' The work ethic had become a part of national policy. Hoover's popularity declined as the depression deepened. America looked to a new leader, a new president. Franklin D. Roosevelt In 1932, the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated the incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover for the presidency. Roosevelt was re-elected president for three more terms, until his death in 1945.

Within that thirteen-year span, he kept a nation from drowning in despair. Nearly thirteen million people were unemployed at the onset of Roosevelt's presidency. Roosevelt believed federal intervention was necessary to pull America out of the depression. So, beginning on March 9, 1933, Roosevelt began passing legislation that later became known as the "Hundred Days' legislation. The first piece of legislation Roosevelt passed was the Emergency Banking Relief Act. This followed Roosevelt's closing of the nation's banks on March 5, the day after his inauguration.

This act gave the president discretionary power over transactions in credit, currency, gold, and silver. The bill allowed sound banks to reopen under regulation and put unsound banks under conservators. The "Hundred Days' legislation lasted until May 26, 1933, with the Gold Repeal Joint Resolution beginning the last piece of legislation. People began to have faith in the government because it was responding to their needs. Roosevelt's programs were not totally effective; however they proved to be innovative.

They were known as the New Deal programs. The "Hundred Days' legislation was aimed at either recovery or relief. The recovery programs proved to be ineffective. One such program, the N.R.A. (National Recovery Administration), was created with hopes that government, businessmen, and labor leaders would cooperate to rise out of the Depression. The government formalized fair trade codes thus giving the federal government power to regulate wages, prices, work hours, and industrial competition. The cooperation never occurred and frequent violations caused the system to break down.

The N.R.A. was deemed unconstitutional in 1935. Roosevelt was far more successful in relief efforts. This legislation was aimed at directly helping the needy. One of these relief creations was the C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corps). This was an unemployment relief measure.

It provided federal jobs in road construction, reforestation, flood control, and national parks projects. Another program allocated 500 million dollars of direct help to the needy. This money was distributed to one-sixth of the nation. This relief was not much; however it did keep people from starving. Perhaps the most influential and debatable piece of legislation passed during the Roosevelt administration was the Social Security Act of 1935.

First, it provided an old age pension program. Second, it set up an unemployment benefit program. And, third, it provided welfare payments to the handicapped, the blind, and to dependent children. This was all to be funded by a tax on employers and workers, the employer payroll tax, and by federal grants to the states. The existence of the Social Security Bill was never questioned. In a New York Times article on July 7, 1935, called the "New Deal's Pacts For Trade Praised- Security Bill Criticized', argues: How much assistance should there be and who should control the program?

Professor Broadus Mitchell from John's Hopkins University used a touch of visual humor to relay his point. He states, "In trying to stand on the two stools of business relief and social reform, the administration falls between them. ' Mitchell continues and becomes overly zealous toward social programs. He states, "The necessary next step is a planned economy for the achievement of economic stability through social ownership and social control of the great means of production. ' Good thing for him he was saying this during the 1930's and not during the 1950's. Dr. Harris, the assistant director of the committee on Social Security sums up the article.

He believes the criticisms are equally divided between those who think there is too much federal centralization and those who think there is too much left up to the states, In another New York Times article on July 9, 1935, called "Long says Roosevelt is ' a Liar and a Faker' And ' Just Getting as Smart as I Was' at 14', reinforces the belief that there was no debate concerning large social programs. The debate was, what kinds of programs? Long's contempt for Roosevelt is obvious in the title, but what is not obvious is Long's contempt for Roosevelt's plan. Perhaps the Associated Press was more of an agitating agency than a reporting agency.

Whatever the case, Long argues against Roosevelt's plan by saying, "the State's old age pensioners would get $3.60 a year, or a little less than a cent a day. ' I don't think that was a lot for back then. Long then attacks Roosevelt by calling him a liar and a faker. He feels cheated because he says, "I first introduced an old age pension plan in 1932.

Then again in 1933 and 1934 and three consecutive times they turned me down. ' Maybe if it were not for Long's untimely death, he would have proposed a plan in 1936. It seems that the country was a far cry from Hoover's belief that the government should not give hand outs to the people. These articles display the demands for change and the disgust that the American people felt for the system as it was. Social Security, although not totally successful, stated that it was the government's responsibility to care for those who could not care for themselves. The New Deal programs on the whole were not successful in meeting the needs they intended to achieve.

However, Roosevelt was a brilliant politician. He kept the nation's spirit of hope alive when a future seemed so dim. By using the radio as a new means of communication, Roosevelt could inspire large groups of people all around the country simultaneously. Although social programs like the ones created by Roosevelt would not play a large part in the national agenda during the 1940's and 50's, they would be the hindsight for the "unconditional War on Poverty' under the Johnson Administration.

Lyndon B. Johnson "The Great Society rests on the abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods. ' This excerpt from Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society's peach in May 1964, sums up the general attitude of many Americans at that time. Johnson believed that through educational and economic reform, he could end racial injustice that was rooted in poverty. This was all made possible because of the state of the economy, the state of politics, and an attentive public.

At the end of World War II, the American economy was thriving. It was a time of high corporate profits and the standard of living had increased by fifty percent. These economic conditions made the war on poverty possible because no one had to sacrifice personal income. The state of politics also supported a new interest in social programs.

New Deal liberalism was sweeping the country's political sphere. Many politicians believed it was their obligation to help the poor. American politics was so optimistic that Americans believed they could deal with any foreign or domestic problem. An attentive public is the final piece that completes the notion that the context of the 1960's would support the Great Society. New Leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr., were supportive of the war on poverty.

President Kennedy had sensitized people to the issue of poverty by proposing a Civil Rights Bill. And finally television opened up a new medium for politicians to influence the people. Television programs in general, portrayed attitudes that made the public sympathetic to the poor, Johnson began the Great Society programs by passing Kennedy's Civil Rights Bill followed by a Voting Rights Act. He then went on to expand the welfare system by creating the Head Start program, the Job Corps, Medicaid and Medicare. The Head Start program helped to prepare poor preschool children develop skills that would benefit them in grammar school.

Childcare, meals, and parental involvement are encouraged. The Job Corps was created for young high school dropouts between the ages of 17 and 22. The Jobs Corps trained these young people so that perhaps one day they might find a job in the workforce. The Jobs Corps helped further by inviting labor unions and businesses to train young people. Medicaid and Medicare are health care programs designed to help people with the cost of short-term health care. Medicare gives health care benefits to the elderly.

Medicaid coverage benefits anyone, regardless of age, if he / she meets the income qualifications. Countless other programs were created also with the liberal view in mind. The programs were geographic isolation (highway construction), discrimination (Affirmative Action), inadequate educational opportunities (Head Start), lack of jobs (Job Corps), and lack of political skills (Community Action Programs). These programs were important but more valuable were the need to eliminate starvation and malnutrition in America. Before Federal Food programs such as Food Stamps and School Breakfast, there were millions of Americans malnourished. But even after the Food Programs were implemented still there was hunger in America.

Not until the Carter Administration was malnutrition and starvation effectively eliminated. But although starvation has been eliminated, some argue that the seventeen million Americans on the Food Stamp program today cannot obtain a balanced diet. In a New York Times article, August 3, 1967, "Senate Votes a $75 million Bill To Fight Starvation in Nation', one can feel the urgency to eliminate poverty. Anti-poverty hearings conducted by the Senate Labor Subcommittee told of starvation in the Mississippi Delta, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., California, and Alaska. The Bill allocated money to the affected state with approval from the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Agriculture Secretary and the Governor of the state being reviewed.

The Bill also authorized a comprehensive study on starvation in America. Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York said, "Starvation and serious malnutrition must absolutely be exercised in our country. ' Indeed Johnson's social revolution was the greatest domestic initiative since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. However, Johnson will always be remembered as the president who escalated American involvement in Vietnam. This is perhaps the reason why most of his domestic policies failed. Financial strain caused by the Vietnam conflict forced the Federal government to cut back on poverty programs.

So even after Johnson left office, programs he initiated were being cut. However, Vietnam was not the only reason Johnson's Great Society failed. In the early 1970's corporate profits began to decline. To aggravate the situation, Corporations invested earnings abroad, specifically for the development of third world nations. Now taxes had to be raised to help the poor. People became disenchanted with anti-poverty programs.

Some new programs were introduced that aided the poor such as EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) and WIC (Women Infants Children feeding supplemental program). But by 1973, the Nixon administration capped expenditures at 2.5 billion falling from 4 billion the previous year. Cutbacks gradually increase during the Carter administration and climaxed during the Reagan administration.

Bibliography

New York Times Articles "Senate Votes a $75 Million Bill to Fight Starvation in Nation. ' New York Times 5 Mar. 1967.
Associated Press. "Long Says Roosevelt Is ' a Liar and a Faker' And ' Just Getting as smart as I Was' at 14. ' New York Times 9 Jul. 1935.
Mallon, Winifred. "New Deal's Pacts For Trade Praised. ' New York Times 7 Jul. 1935.
Books Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, Roberts. America: Past and Present. Harper Collins College Publishers. 3rd ed. New York, 1994.
Langston, Thomas S. Ideologies and Presidents: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution. The John Hopkins University Press. Ballantine Books. 11th ed. Canada, 1992 New York Times Articles "Senate Votes a $75 Million Bill to Fight Starvation in Nation.
Associated Press. Mallon, Winifred. 3rd ed. New York, 1994.
Ballantine Books. 11th ed. Canada, 1992.