The Domestic policy of FDR and George W. Bush

The Domestic Policies of Franklin D . Roosevelt

and George W . Bush

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In 1932 , Franklin Delano Roosevelt , a presidential candidate running against Herbert Hoover uttered these words : I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in all our history ' and a few weeks later added in a speech to unemployed steelworkers that I regard reduction in Federal spending as one of the most important issues in this campaign . In my opinion , it is the most direct

and effective contribution that government can make to business (Lekachman 1989

1 . Keep in mind that this is the basic speech of practically every potential or wanna be ' political official . Roosevelt said what he thought would get him elected , and it apparently worked . Of course the sequel to these statements (and a quite familiar sequel to Americans who follow politics ) was deficit spending , public works , public housing , massive relief programs and the Social Security Act

Roosevelt faced much adversity in the form of the Great Depression and World War II , but it has been said that he guided our country through its greatest domestic crisis with the exception of the Civil War as well as its greatest foreign crisis (Plaud 2003

. 2 . Our country was sinking into economic quicksand when FDR took office , yet he had a certain optimism and confidence that seemed to give the American people hope . His social program The New Deal ' brought about the beginning of a national recovery ' While history generally depicts FDR as an answer to America 's economic woes , he has been accused all at once of being simplistic , duplicitous , impenetrably complex as well as commanding in his policy-making strategies (Plaud 2003

1 Roosevelt stated in his March 21 , 1933 speech to Congress that he would be suggesting three types of legislation . The first would be the enrollment of workers by the Federal Government for public employment the second was grants to States for relief work , and the third was a broad , public works labor-creating program (American 2005

1

Franklin Delano Roosevelt could be classified as one of the high opportunity ' presidents , according to Richard Conley in his book entitled The Presidency and Domestic Policy (Conley 2001

1 Other high opportunity ' presidents included Lyndon B . Johnson and Ronald Reagan . The theme that surrounds these three presidents can be stated as they all profited from strong electoral victories , they all got their administrations off to a fast start ' and they all left a solid and lasting imprint on domestic policy . Roosevelt took immediate charge of policy proposals that carried over from his predecessor in the realm of the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression (Conley 2001 br

. 1

Conley considers George W . Bush a relatively low opportunity president , along with Richard Nixon , Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton because they each faced less promising economic and electoral circumstances surrounding their terms (Conley 2001

. 2 . Conley considers Bush 's equivocation over budget...