Goal 9.05: Assess the impact of New Deal reforms in enlarging the role of the federal government in American life.

I.  The New Deal (1933 – 1938)

  1. FDR was willing to experiment – better to try something and have it fail, than to sit and do nothing at all
  2. Focus on ______, ______, and ______
  3. Deficit Spending
  4. Roosevelt’s plans would require the government to spend more than it collected in taxes, creating a national deficit
  5. Roosevelt assured Congress that the deficit was an emergency measure which would be temporary (it wasn’t)
  6. John Maynard ______(1883 – 1946)
  7. British economist who argued that the best way to end an economic recession was through government spending programs which create a national debt
  8. The First Hundred Days
  9. Between March 9 & June 16, 1933 (FDR’s first 100 days in office) he got Congress to pass 15 major acts which launched his New Deal reforms

II.  New Deal Programs

  1. Finance & Banking Programs
  2. Emergency Banking Relief Act
  3. Upon assuming office, FDR declared a federal banking holiday and closed all banks and called Congress into a special session
  4. Both houses of Congress passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act in a single afternoon
  5. The act called for all banks to be assessed for credit-worthiness by the US government and banks found to be stable enough were issued special federal licenses to operate
  6. Roosevelt then went on the radio and assured Americans that it was safe to put their money back in these newly licensed banks
  7. Americans believed him and stopped withdrawing their money from the banking system and began resuming deposits
  8. Throughout his presidency, FDR would keep America informed of his intentions and progress through these radio-broadcast “______”
  9. Securities Act of 1933
  10. Required all securities sold in the US to be registered with the US government
  11. Required companies which sold stocks and bonds to provide complete and truthful information to investors
  12. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
  13. Created in 1934
  14. Government agency which enforces the Securities Act
  15. Responsible for supervising companies in US which deal in securities (stocks, bonds, and other financial investments)
  16. Glass-Steagall Act of 1933
  17. Separated commercial banking (everyday banks that accept deposits, make mortgage loans, etc.) from investment banking by banning commercial banks from risking customers deposits with investments in the stock market
  18. Established the FDIC
  19. Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC)
  20. Designed to boost Americans’ confidence in banks
  21. Government program which insures bank deposits up to $250,000 per person per bank
  22. Also supervises all banks in the US to ensure that they are stable and manages the assets of any banks which fail
  23. Jobs Programs
  24. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
  25. 1933 - 1942
  26. Government agency which offered work to unemployed men between 17 and 25 in the forestry service
  27. Workers planted trees, fought forest fires, and built drinking water reservoirs
  28. Workers lived in special camps and earned $30 per month
  29. Over 3 million men worked for the CCC over its 9 years
  30. Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
  31. Created by the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933
  32. Provided work for over 20 million by giving over $3 billion to state and local governments so they could create jobs for unskilled labor
  33. Many of these jobs were in manufacturing consumer goods for the needy – canning fruits & vegetables, making mattresses and bedding, distributing surplus food
  34. Replaced by the WPA in 1935
  35. Civil Works Administration (CWA)
  36. 1933 – 34
  37. Part of FERA
  38. Provided short-term work to 4 million
  39. Built sewers and other sanitation systems, roads, airports, and over 40,000 schools
  40. Spent over $1 billion in just over 5 months
  41. Works Progress Administration (WPA)
  42. 1935 – 1943
  43. Largest New Deal organization, at one time it was the largest single employer in the US
  44. Spent over $11 billion
  45. Government program designed to provide jobs to unskilled laborers
  46. Constructed many government buildings
  47. Also hired artists, writers, and others who were paid to expand US cultural arts
  48. National Recovery Administration (NRA)
  49. 1933 - 1935
  50. Created by the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
  51. Mission was to stabilize prices for manufactured goods and prevent any more businesses from failing
  52. Helped create codes of fair competition and reductions in competition
  53. Struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935 case of ______
  54. Public Works Administration (PWA)
  55. 1933 - 1939
  56. Created by the NIRA
  57. Government agency which created jobs for skilled workers through large-scale public works projects, such as the construction of dams, bridges, and highways
  58. Spent over $6 billion
  59. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  60. 1933 - Today
  61. Built ______in the South to create jobs, bring electric power, and provide flood control to some of the poorest and most rural parts of the nation (Appalachian Mountains)
  62. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
  63. 1935 - Today
  64. Created by the National Labor Relations Act (also called the Wagner Act)
  65. Designed to monitor unfair management practices, monitor labor unions, and act as an arbitrator between management and unions
  66. Social Security Administration (SSA)
  67. 1935 - Today
  68. Provides retirement income for all workers once they reach age 65; also provides payments to needy children and people with permanent disabilities
  69. Also included the first form of unemployment insurance
  70. All of this is paid for through a payroll tax which every worker in America pays
  71. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA)
  72. Raised minimum wage to ______/hour
  73. Set maximum number of work hours at ______hours/week
  74. Required payment of overtime wages
  75. Banned child labor for those under ______years of age
  76. Programs to Help Farmers and Consumers
  77. Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
  78. 1933
  79. Provided government loans to farmers
  80. Paid farmers to not grow crops in order to reduce supply and push up crop prices
  81. Program saved American farmers from ruin, but angered consumers because it increased the price of food
  82. Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)
  83. 1933 – 1935
  84. Created to save homeowners from eviction
  85. US government bought mortgages from banks and then restructured them with lower interest rates and longer terms
  86. About 10% of home owners in the US had mortgages with the HOLC
  87. Still, thousands could not make even the adjusted payments and the HOLC foreclosed on many homes
  88. Farm Credit Administration (FCA)
  89. Farmers’ version of the HOLC
  90. Helped farmers refinance the mortgages on their farms
  91. Saved thousands of family farms
  92. National Housing Act of 1937
  93. Created the US Housing Authority (USHA)
  94. Subsidized loans to builders who were willing to tear down old tenements and build large tracts of low-cost housing to help the poor
  95. First public housing (“projects”) effort in the US
  96. Farm Security Administration
  97. The programs of the AAA had helped farmers who owned the land they worked, but had hurt tenant farmers
  98. 1937: The FSA was created to loan money to tenant farmers so that they could buy their own farms
  99. Loaned over $1 billion

III.  Critics of the New Deal

  1. ______
  2. Created in 1934
  3. Conservative opposition to FDR’s programs
  4. Combined business leaders with anti-New Deal politicians
  5. Organized opposition to the New Deal, especially Social Security and the AAA
  6. Huey ______(1893 – 1935)
  7. Very popular Senator from Louisiana &head of a powerful (and corrupt) political machine
  8. Ran a “Share Our Wealth” campaign which called for taxes on the rich to pay for programs to help the poor
  9. Assassinated in 1935
  10. Father Charles ______(1891 – 1979)
  11. Catholic priest who used his weekly radio show to call on FDR to do more to help the poor, such as raising taxes on the wealthy and nationalization of the banking industry
  12. During WWII, he was arrested for violation of the Espionage Act for his continued criticisms of FDR and the Catholic Church ordered him to end his radio program
  13. Dr. Francis ______(1867 – 1960)
  14. Proposed in his Townsend Plan that the government provide all citizens over 60 with a $200/month pension with the requirements that they must retire (creating jobs for young people) and must spend the entire $200 each month (which would boost the economy)
  15. Townsend Plan gained widespread support among the elderly and increased political activism among seniors
  16. The Supreme Court
  17. Starting in 1935, the Supreme Court began attacking Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, striking down several as unconstitutional
  18. These attacks worried Roosevelt, prompting him to take action to swing the Court in his favor
  19. FDR’s ______Scheme
  20. FDR proposed a bill to Congress which would allow the President to appoint extra Justices to the Supreme Court anytime a Justice had served 10 years or had passed the age of 70
  21. This would have allowed FDR to appoint 6 new justices almost immediately, ones who would have supported his New Deal programs
  22. Congress refused to expand the Court, but the Supreme Court sensed the danger and did not attack any more New Deal programs

IV.  Long-term Consequences of the New Deal

  1. US as a “______State”
  2. Federal government assumed the new role of balancing and mediating the competing economic interests of businesses, farmers, workers, and consumers
  3. US as a “______State”
  4. FDR’s New Deal programs also began to shift spending priorities in the budget
  5. As Americans became used to the idea of government assistance for the needy, more and more of the federal budget was spent on public welfare programs