New Deal Dbq

“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American people,” Franklin D. Roosevelt. New Deal, a program launched by Franklin D. Roosevelt, which made a move to bring about immediate relief, financial help, and additional reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, housing, and massively expanding the extent of the federal government's exercises . On July 2, 1932, the term “New Deal” was taken from Roosevelt's speech accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Countering the insufficiency of President Herbert Hoover’s administration in meeting the consequences of the Great Depression, American voters overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic promise of the "New Deal", and for the "Forgotten Man,” which opposed the traditional American political theory of free enterprise or “Laissez-Faire.” The New Deal -for the most part- grasped the idea of a government-controlled economy aimed at accomplishing a harmony between clashing economic interests.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States, historians considered him to be

a bold president who proved through a lot of acts and legislation that the federal government can and would intervene with the country’s economy, business, and market during tight times. After World War I, industrialization took the economy up the curve very quickly, and people started building and owning houses, buying electric machines (like stoves, washing machines, radios, etc...), and of course automobiles became cheaper to afford and easier to operate, and people actually had jobs and money to afford such luxuries. After this era of industrialization, a sudden drop in the market and economy happened and shortly after that, the Great Depression followed. Did the New Deal end the Great Depression? Not necessarily! But, did it help decrease unemployment, help the elderly survive, and save farmers from going bankrupt? Absolutely! However, does this make it an ultimate super plan to save the economy?!
Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with help from Congress passed laws and acts that somewhat intervened directly in the American peoples’ lives, but it also changed the way people looked at the government and the democratic party. Roosevelt strongly believed that cutting government spending will somehow help the economy recover from the Great Depression, and historians described the New Deal as the three R’s program; Relief, Recovery, and Reform .
The New Deal was described as the Relief program as it gave help financially directly to the people, and historians gave it that name as it halted the economy from deteriorating. One of the New Deal’s Acts contributed to the Relief program is the Emergency Banking Act which closed small banks, and banks that will no longer work, and re-opened some big banks that closed during the depression. Also, the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) , which gave money directly to those who needed immediate cash, like men who were no longer employed or lost their jobs but somehow need to raise and maintain their families. Another program would be the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in which the government provided temporary jobs to the many who were unemployed, and during the 1930’s that was considered a huge deal, and a non-imaginary form of government interference. There was also the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which gave temporary jobs to unmarried men, and participants usually lived in a barracks type of housing, which wasn’t necessarily the best condition to live .
The New Deal was also called the Recovery program as its programs slowly restarted the flow in the market. One of the major acts for this program was the Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA), this act taxed food processors and gave the money directly to the farmers as a payment for decreasing crops supply, because, the less the supply the higher the prices. However, this act only helped farmers who were landowners, African Americans who were either sharecroppers or tenants continued to suffer from extreme poverty . Another recovery program would be the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) which regulated businesses controlled by the government and gave them the power to set rules for the economy, and the Blue Eagle was their displayed feature . There was also the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in which the government provided governmental jobs (public works). Another major recovery act was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Tennessee Valley Authority was created by Congress to build dams and provide cheap electricity, irrigation, and fertilizers while promoting economic development , but because a lot of big businesses were involved, it somehow put the government in direct competition with those big companies.
Last but not least, the New Deal was considered to be a Reform program as some of its acts contributed to avoiding another depression and ensuring citizens against such economic disasters.

A very highlighted act of the reform program was the Social Security Act (SSA), and it was designed to provide the elderly who are no longer able to work with money to survive, and that helped increase FDR’s popularity as he was the first president to take money from the young by taxes and give it to the elderly who can no longer support themselves. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was another reform program that was designed to ensure depositors their money in savings banks, because one of the things that Roosevelt urged the people to do was to deposit more money than they withdrew from banks but considering all the banks that went bankrupt during the depression, he had to give the people a sense of

security.
FDR did not hesitate to use his power, and the federal government’s power to intervene within the country, and he also used the advantage in which Congress was dominated by Democrats at the time, so, passing legislation through Congress wasn’t that hard. He expanded his powers to be in control of the Treasury and most the civil services . Roosevelt worked hard to reach out to the people, he considered all the past president’s failures to communicate and reach out to the Americans, and what was an easier way to do so than press conferences and radio talks. He even created a side chat called “Fire chat”. Roosevelt built relationships with the media in which he would allow them in the White House in exchange for them keeping all updates about the executive branch positive, and in the long run that helped increase his popularity. Nevertheless, regardless of his popularity, Roosevelt suffered from Poliomyelitis which caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down, but that did not stop him from keeping his promises and working hard to rebuild the country.
The New Deal was successful in the short-run, but it didn’t end the Great Depression. FDR was the first president to step in and put the government in control expanding his and the government’s power, and his actions shaped the economy and it gave a new meaning to liberty and freedom, which in the long-run made him one of the most notable presidents of the United States of America.