The Spenders

“‘How much cash and credit of the United States Government has been spent since March 4, 1933?’ I finally asked a very high-placed official. He answered calmly enough: ‘I do not know. I do not suppose anybody knows.’”

The discussion was quoted in the editorial The Spenders from the August 8, 1936 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Americans wanted to know the facts about the government’s expenditures but where could they obtain such information? Many believed since ¼ of every dollar they made was being turned into the government they had earned the right to know about the government’s spending.

In comparison, Americans today still want to know the answers to those same questions. Although the wave of the New Deal happened over 70 years ago, President Barack Obama is strongly being compared to the New Deal creator, FDR.

“Obama’s plea for a massive government spending program is based on his belief that Roosevelt’s New Deal helped lift the country out of the 1930s depression,” states the article “Amid echoes of FDR, debate rekindles over New Deal” in the January 15, 2009 edition of The Boston Globe.

Regardless of your opinion of the new deal, Obama is clearly eager to tread foot on the foundation built by presidents before him. “Obama is a serious student of the period and is trying to apply its lessons, both in terms of economic theory and inspirational message. The President [Elect], however, cautioned in a recent television interview that he wouldn’t simply copy the New Deal because ‘no period is exactly the same,’” states the Boston Globe article.