Question

•Why were the new deal programs controversial?

Answer 1

gimme a sec

Answer 2

loomy and disheartened, the Republicans in 1932 renominated Hoover for another term as president, in part to counter claims that Hoover had caused the Depression. The Democrats nominated the governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). In his nomination acceptance speech, FDR said "I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people." His policies to bring the U.S. out of the Depression therefore became known as the New Deal. During the 1932 campaign, FDR was vague as to what the New Deal would be, but he promised that the government would do something, that it would experiment till it found successful measures with which to fight the Depression. The personalities of the two men could not have been more different. Hoover, deeply shaken by the crisis and by the dramatic fall in his popularity, seemed to personify pessimism and despair. Roosevelt, on the other hand, had an optimistic, outgoing personality that inspired people. On election day, FDR won in a landslide, with 472 electoral votes to Hoover’s 59.

By the time FDR took office, on March 4, 1933, the country had reached the bottom of the barrel. The total national income had been cut by more than one-half since 1929. 250,000 families lost their homes to foreclosures in 1932, and in early 1933 alone 20,000 farms were lost to foreclosure. The full-time payroll of the giant U.S. Steel Corporation had fallen from 225,000 workers in 1929 to zero in 1933. Desperate men fought for garbage behind restaurants, and in Chicago teachers who had gone unpaid for months fainted in classrooms from hunger. More and more Americans felt hopeless, and some questioned the economic and political system that had permitted such an unprecedented disaster. Clearly, FDR had his work cut out for him.. Over the next five years, FDR and the New Deal would address a number of crisis areas with new reform programs:

Banking: When FDR took office, the nation’s banking system was on the verge of collapse. The New Deal brought reform measures that eliminated unhealthy practices and imposed more federal regulation of banks. Some conservatives thought that FDR was going too far in regulating the banks, while some on the Left thought that the government had not gone far enough, that the banks should be nationalized. But FDR saw his goal as patching up and repairing the capitalist system, not dismantling it. The FDIC was one result of New Deal banking reform.

Agriculture: Another area of extreme crisis was the nation’s system of agriculture. The Agricultural Adjustment Act and other reforms were designed to cut production and raise crop prices. They succeeded, but the benefits went to landowning farmers, with many sharecroppers forced off the land to look for work elsewhere.

Unemployment: With millions of people thrown out of work, the question was no longer whether the federal government should address the problem, but how. The New Deal ushered in a variety of work relief programs. Most famous are the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The CCC hired young unemployed men between the ages of 18 and 25 to live in government camps and work on conservation-related activities such as reforestation. The men were given room and board and were paid a monthly salary, of which a large portion was to be sent home to families. The WPA was a much broader program that hired the unemployed to work on government projects such as dams, hospitals, bridges, post offices, etc. These unemployment programs were the most controversial New Deal measures, since many questioned their legitimacy and their effectiveness. The programs provided work and income for millions, but millions of other unemployed Americans never received government-funded jobs. In the end, World War II, not the New Deal, would end the Depression and bring virtually full employment.

Social Security: Perhaps the most important New Deal innovation, the Social Security Act of 1935 created a federal safety net, in the form of monthly pensions, for several groups of disadvantaged people: the elderly, the disabled, women with dependent children, and the unemployed. Money to run the program would be derived through payroll taxes paid by both employers and employees. This act was a landmark in the expansion of the federal government’s role in the day-to-day life of Americans. For the first time the government was now committing to provide a minimal level of well being for its citizens. Later steps – such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs of the 1960s – built upon this initial commitment. Only recently, with the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, has the government’s role in public welfare been reduced.

Organized Labor: Under the New Deal, the government guaranteed the right of workers to form unions and to bargain collectively with employers. Union memberships skyrocketed as a result. In addition, under the last major piece of New Deal reform legislation – the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 – the government imposed a maximum work week and a minimum wage for American workers.

By the end of 1938, the period of intensive reform referred to as the New Deal was coming to a close. The Depression was not over, but many people were doing better, conservatives had made gains in Congress, and the country was turning its attention to crises overseas. But the New Deal was a major turning point in American history, establishing new responsibilities of and expectations for the federal government, and setting the stage for debate that continues to this day over the proper size and role of government.

Answer 3

Gloomy and disheartened i meant

Answer 4

Wow, that's a lot. So if you could and if you wanted to; but you don't have to... How would you sum all this up to answer the question.?

Answer 5

@luckycoins888

Answer 6

yes?

Answer 7

Wow lol amazing