FDR--a revised opinion

Not too long ago I read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, in which she tackles the ongoing adoration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Barack Obama was elected, we heard many comparing him to FDR, a person who supposedly rescued the country through massive government policies. But her book challenges this, and now there's a new one that backs up her points -- New Deal or Raw Deal by Burton Folsom. His overall point is that Roosevelt's economic policies were a disaster because they prolonged the depression and made the United States economically backward compared with other nations during the 1930s.

His statistics are eye-opening. In 1929 the United States unemployment rate was the lowest in the world. Even in 1932, right in the middle of the Great Depression, unemployment was 25%; we ranked 8th out of 16 developed countries. But by 1938, by which time we had had nearly two terms of Roosevelt's programs, unemployment was near 20% and we ranked 13th of those same 16 nations. You don't hear that information from those who defend FDR by saying this was a world-wide problem. That may have been true when the Great Depression started, but it was our problem long after other nations with different economic policies had shaken it off.

Folsom does more than tackle economic problems connected to Roosevelt's time in office. He also indicts him for morally corrupting the office of the President. It was FDR who used the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents. For example, FDR went after Andrew Mellon even though prosecutors said the case was flimsy. It was Roosevelt who demanded they go ahead and try to destroy this man. He used the IRS the same way. He used federal recovery programs which were supposed to help the entire country for blatant partisan purposes by employing people from certain states as payoffs for supporting him. Finally in 1939 the disgusted U.S. Congress rebelled and enacted legislation barring federal workers from such political activity.

Why is this book important today? President Obama and the Democrats love stimulus packages and government intervention in the economy much as Roosevelt did. However, they do not remember or they do not care that FDR's record on economic issues was so terrible. Somehow FDR had the magic touch, which enabled him to win election after election despite his failures at home. But it is certainly questionable that Barack Obama has the same touch. When we think about all the things he has done wrong over the past couple of years, it's no wonder his approval rating is so low. Obama is like FDR with his counterproductive economic policies, but he seems to be unlike him as far as his ability to reach out and connect with the American people.