Eric Rauchway: The New Deal Was on the Ballot in 1932: "On February 22, 1933, just over a week before Roosevelt’s inauguration, Hoover wrote to Senator David Reed (R-PA) that '90% of the so-called new deal' consisted of inflationary measures, massive borrowing to build public works, and indefinite delay in balancing the budget...
...While scholars may quarrel over Hoover’s percentage, there is no question that these three policies did much of the work of the New Deal, and indeed if we restrict our attention solely to that portion of Roosevelt’s program devoted to recovery from the Great Depression (as opposed to relief or reform), these three policies may well account for about ninety percent of it. Hoover also knew by this date that the Democrats would adopt a subsidy to raise the price of agricultural goods and would lower tariffs on imports. The outgoing president knew about these elements of the New Deal because Roosevelt and other Democrats kept talking about them—or, as Hoover wrote to Reed, “there is constant promise” of such policies.... Roosevelt had in his own speeches outlined major ele- ments of what we can recognize—and what Hoover recognized—as the New Deal. The Democrats, if put in control of the federal government, would subsidize commodity prices; reg- ulate finance; lower tariffs; offer mortgage relief and unemployment relief; launch major public works programs, including especially the construction of hydroelectric power plants that Washington would operate; raise wages; and reduce working hours. Any minimally attentive audience for Roosevelt’s speeches would have heard what the New Deal would be, quite clearly—which is why Hoover opposed Roosevelt’s proposals so vehemently...
#noted
