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1936
The Second Term
By: David K. Every
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Apr 04,1999
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 he Republicans tried to get elected in 1936 on the same platform that Roosevelt had used in 1932 -- "Cut Deficits, Reduce Spending, Eliminate Bureaucracy" and so on. The Democrats were livid and accused them of borrowing their platform -- the Republicans responded, "Why not, the Platform has never been used?"
However by this time Roosevelt had spent enough money on Public Works and gotten enough people suckling on the Govt. teat that everyone wanted more of the same. The spending had hidden some of the symptoms of the depression and Federal money is like crack cocaine to most politicians -- they wanted more.
Think about it from a politicians point of view, you get to spend money in your district and create jobs (and be loved for it), and you get to blame the President and Federal Govt. for increasing taxes. Win-Win! Each local politician gets to claim how much has been done for the community since the last election -- and measure it in jobs and works programs.
The people were also riding high(er) on the spending -- as I've mentioned before, people notice the rewards of such spending but don't see the costs until later (and then misattribute the problems to something else). People understand money. Al Smith had told FDR that "nothing beats a billion dollars" -- Roosevelt got the message. There were cases like temporary work cards distributed during election time that would entitle the bearer to two to four weeks of work -- often distributed by the Democratic party -- pay for votes was the message, and it came across loud and clear. Roosevelt won the election -- and he only had to borrow from his children (our parents, us, and the generations after us) to do it.
           
Of course things were not rosy for long -- not at all. We had the highest National Debt. ever before Roosevelt took office (22 Billion) -- most of that the heritage of WWI -- and Roosevelt had nearly doubled it in 4 years (37 Billion). Of course if FDR's plans had been successful in eliminating the depression then people would not be complaining -- but people were starting to complain again.
Remember, there was only so much you could spend on (in public works) because States have to pay to upkeep whatever the Federal Government builds. Some States were turning down new projects because they couldn't afford to maintain all these "new" things -- at least not without harming the economy more (through even higher taxes). The short term benefits of spending had run it's course.
In 1932 there were 11 Million people out of work, and through massive spending Roosevelt had reduced that to 4.5 Million -- but that was creeping up again, and by 1939 unemployment was back up above the 1932 level. To get elected in '36 Roosevelt had the treasury boast that relief payments were less than the prior year -- the truth was that they were playing with the numbers (and scrambling accounts) and spending was above previous levels -- and rising. There were more on public assustance than ever (in dollars and numbers). Basically there was a second Depression -- or really the first one still rearing it's head. Spending had only hidden the truth for a couple years (long enough to get FDR elected to a second term). None of the important indicators were up -- private investment, housing and construction, business start ups or sales, and so on.
When Roosevelt sent his people to talk with business, they laughed him out of the meetings -- he'd spent the last 4 or 5 years vilifying business and blaming heads of business for everything, then set up agencies to micromanage them (which had made things worse), and now he was saying what an ally to business he was. Businessmen weren't buying it, they knew the truths about what was going on more than FDR did (and they knew that too). Roosevelt was getting desperate -- he was talking with his aides about their imminent defeat in the 1940 election, and they knew they were doomed -- 6 years after the start of the New Deal, and the policies were a complete flop economically.
Price and Wage controls had been a flop as well. All they managed to do was bankrupt some businesses, or create black markets for many goods and services, to get around the controls, (which drove costs up higher) -- and many just flat out ignored them. So we got a trend of "lots of new laws that most had contempt for" -- and lots of new "criminals" since no one could reasonably comply with all the stupid laws and regulations.
   
Roosevelt was also livid over the Supreme Court blocking some of his programs as Unconstitutional. They were unconstitutional, he knew they were (his own advisors had told him so) -- but was a retaliatory power-hungry individual. In a blatant attempt to usurp the Constitution (more than he had already), FDR put a bill before congress that would force all Supreme Court Justices over the age of 70 to retire, and allow him to put in 6 (or more) new Judges (who would be more sympathetic to his causes). His public rationalization was, "the Justices were old and slow and falling behind in their case loads". In fact, the Supreme court docket was (for once) fully up to date, which any lawyer in congress knew, and which was somewhat rare. But Roosevelt's arrogance had arisen to the point where he thought he could cram anything through congress -- and he was almost right.
Fortunately, even the most complicit and weakest congress in history, one that passed almost everything Roosevelt laid before them, would not go this far. There were enough votes to pass the law (too many feared Roosevelt and would have supported it anyway) -- but a few gutsy individuals held it up in committee and debated it, delayed it, and brought the fraud to the public's attention (for which they were later punished by Roosevelt). Filibusters and committees do have some value.
FDR was telling the public, via his Fireside Chats, what a good thing this new law would be, but the public wasn't that stupid. Roosevelt had sworn to his detractors that the public would support him, but fortunately a little sanity was left -- the public went against him. Before Roosevelt played his trump card (appealed to the public), he could have passed a compromise deal which would have still gotten his ends. It would have been to force only one Justice out per year, and only after the age of 75 -- which would have been enough to stack the court in his favor. However, his power play on the Fireside Chat let everyone know how weak his stance really was, so he lost that opportunity as well. Congress not feeling the heat of the masses actually voted correctly -- and this bill fell to an defeat to the cheers of congress. But it was very close for a while. We almost had the Executive branch (with the complacency of the legislative branch) overthrow the Judicial branch of our Government. It was still the most disgusting attempts to usurp the constitution by any President in our history.
Even afterwards, it seems the Supreme Court was scared into shape, because many seem to have had a change of heart, and many more decisions went in FDRs favor -- and in many cases "in FDRs favor" was against the tenets of freedom and what the constitution stood for.
    
Just when things looked their worst (economically), Roosevelt got a reprieve. Fortunately, there was still one way they could spend indefinitely -- WAR! Or at least defense spending in anticipation of the war. FDR wanted war, he needed the war, but he needed to convince people he would keep us out of war. He could build up our defenses, and sell (borrow our money to give) our war-goods to England and Russia. He could posture, play, manipulate and drive us into a war -- all with the glories of unlimited spending. Best of all,the States didn't have to worry about maintaining what the Fed built, and they knew they could hide the symptoms of the depression indefinitely (by borrowing against the future).
Many forget that FDR's policies did not cure the depression at all -- most programs were ruled unconstitutional, and years after the New Deal we were in worse shape than when he came into office -- only the nation had far more debt, far higher operating costs, far more defect and far more taxes and regulations burdening the economy as well. 20 more years of the New Deal would not have made the Depression go away, and the first 4 years certainly had no lasting effect -- but 20 more years of the New Deal and we might have bankrupted our nation or finished the job of becoming that which we publicly claimed we despised (some Fascist, Communist or Socialist hybrid regeim). FDR took credit for fixing the depression -- those that remember the late 30's will remember that things were not that good.
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