To put the Farm Appropriations bill in current perspective, just add 3 zeroes to the sums discussed in the article. It’s not until you read these articles do you realize how far FDR’s socialist policies went. And how much they’ve become ingrained into American life today.
I also note how an opponent of FDR’s proposed farm bill cited one of FDR’s own 1932 speeches decrying deficit spending as prolonging the economic crisis.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
"Whose idea is it that we ought to try to cut down public expenditures and put reason and logic and sanity into our appropriation work?" Mr. Woodrum asked.
"I want to read you what the President of the United States said about the subject, speaking of deficit financing and unbalanced budgets."
He then read from Mr. Roosevelt's Pittsburgh speech of 1932 which said that deficit financing had "contributed to the recent collapse of our banking structure; accentuated the stagnation of the economic life of our people; added to the ranks of the unemployed."
"What was true seven years ago is doubly true today." Mr. Woodrum went on, "because the national debt is higher. We are up against the ceiling of the national debt. The President of the United States recognized that it is true, because he has brought a budget here and asked Congress to help him to reduce the deficit this year by $2,000,000,000."