FDR's New Deal Blueprint For Obama

(CBS)  The economic crisis of late has some people looking back to a set of old initials ... WPA. And they're thinking perhaps that New Deal program will serve as a model for our times. Our Cover Story is reported by Chip Reid:

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Anxiety and fear surround workers this holiday season. Last month, half a million people lost their jobs … more than 2 million have since last December.

"We need action, and action now," said President-elect Barack Obama. "That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create two million jobs."

In 1933, another new president faced a collapsing economy, and rallied the nation with similar words:

"This nation is asking for action, and action now," said Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his first inaugural address.

Seventy-five years ago, FDR began the New Deal. What was truly new - in fact revolutionary - was his conviction that the federal government had a direct responsibility to create jobs, and to pay for them with tax dollars.

"Our greatest task is to put people back to work," he said.

"When Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, 13 to 15 million people were out of work," said Nick Taylor, author of a new book called "American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA" (Bantam). "People standing in line, often rags for shoes, shuffling along in the snow to get a cup of soup or a piece of bread."

The book examines the Works Progress Administration. It was a complete break from Herbert Hoover and past presidents who believed that only corporations create jobs, and only private charities should take care of the poor.

"I mean, Hoover said, 'If only somebody could write a song or poem or tell a joke that would make people forget the Depression.' He wasn't doing anything about it in terms of the government's force.

"Okay, so in comes FDR. The first thing he did was to provide relief, direct relief. Chits. Some people got checks. Some people got surplus food stuffs. But eventually the idea was to provide jobs, to allow people the dignity of work."

The WPA lasted 8 years, from 1935 to 1943, and left a mark on America that is still visible today. It spent $11 billion dollars, employed eight and a half million people.

New roads were built - 650,000 miles of them. And new airports, including New York City's Laguardia Airport.

But it wasn't just about things. The public school lunch program got its start with WPA dollars.

"Attendance increased," Taylor said. "It was something that raised the health of the country."

FDR thought people needed places for recreation. So, the WPA repaired and enlarged the national park system, but Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins, the man who headed the WPA, knew there was more to life than bricks and mortar.

"The great thing that Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins recognized was that it made no sense whatsoever to take an excellent violin player and put him to work building a road," Taylor said. "He could provide, or she could provide, entertainment to people. And enlightenment! And that's why the WPA had an umbrella over arts projects as well as construction."

In 1941, Woody Guthrie was paid to write songs for a month as he visited the new dams under construction along the Columbia River in Washington State.

The WPA financed 225,000 concerts, with audiences of 150 million Americans. Actors appeared in stage productions all over the country. Artists painted murals on countless public buildings, like those at Lguardia's Marine Air Terminal in New York.

The WPA financed almost a half-million pieces of art. Some are on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington.

George Gurney, the deputy chief curator at the museum, said the WPA arts program was a godsend for many artists in the 1930s. "It allowed them to continue to work where they would not have been able to do so otherwise."

Gurney says many of the WPA works show the strength and promise of the country, such as Ray Strong's painting of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction.

"Here was an artist showing what we were going to be able to do, what we can do. We are a nation that 'can do,'" said Gurney.

Earle Richardson, who was African American, painted this scene of southern workers in the field.

"He was trying to convey that blacks in America contribute like everyone else," Gurney said.

Taylor says in the end-the very definition of the American worker was transformed by the WPA: "To envision the worker not as a commodity but as a resource."

And now President-elect Obama is talking about his own jobs program that could cost half a trillion dollars.

Economic analyst Jeff Madrick believes Obama is also sending a very clear message.

"Well, I think the government is back and we're all the better for it," Madrick said. "In fact, the government has been away at least since Ronald Reagan."

Madrick recently published a book, Reid. "I think down the road higher taxes, even on the middle class, and I know this is anathema right now, will be necessary to pay for the social programs we need."Like all government programs, the WPA was not without critics. The term "boondoggle" was coined to describe some of its projects. WPA , they said, stood for "we putter around." And today, as back in Roosevelt's time, some question whether government stimulus programs really work.Alan Viard, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said, "I think it's a bad idea to be doing a large multi-hundred-billion dollar program of infrastructure spending on short notice.

"I really have two concerns," Viard said. "One is that spending is not going to be quick enough to stimulate the economy. And the second is that it's not going to be good investments for the long run."

"And if they're not good investments, what happens?" Reid asked.

"Then it means we have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars, piling up additional debt for us and our children."

History shows that Roosevelt's WPA lifted millions out of poverty, though author Nick Taylor does not believe the New Deal ended the Depression.

"Obviously the Depression ended with World War II and the humming factories that were producing munitions and tanks and planes and uniforms and everything else that funded the war effort," he said.

Yet in a time of serious economic stress and fear, Taylor writes that FDR had some advice the new president could use. Roosevelt said: "The country demands bold, persistent experimentation. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something!"

[FPCOND]

For all those who thought they were getting a change in politics, they should be shocked to see that this President is using something that was used 75 years ago, and ultimately failed then, I don`t see it working any better now than 75 years ago.
It is a shame that so many people don`t take the time to get the facts about a candidate before they cast their vote. I did not vote for Obama, but I truely hope he does a good job for our countries sake. However i don`t see it happening. As a former Marine I think it is beyond belief that President Obama would even think of the idea of having Vets. civilian employer insurance billed for combat injuries. Who would hire them, and if they did who would be able to afford the insurance that is already to expensive. And just for the record, remember Joe the Plumber, where is he now? Remember he said in a month after the election was over he would be forgotten.

[mbuhroo]

One more thing aususus. Comparing the jobs going overseas during Kennedy Johnson compared to the last 10 years is really grasping at straws to make a point. Come on, Ross Porot was screaming this was gonna happen after NAFTA. I remember those idiots up on the podium smiling after it past (NAFTA) and thinking of when Porot said years before how the first few years would seem alright then you''d hear a giant sucking sound in this country. All the jobs leaving.

[mbuhroo]

The goverment never owned energy but prices were regulated. As soon as Bush got into office (3 day after.)He signed a bill effectivaly giving Enron the right to charge whatever they pleased for electricity for sure and maybe gas ( I''m not sure about gas.) My point is is anybody thinks that because we''re america and therfore americans that somehow we won''t do what people have been doing since people have been in existance. What made our country so powerful was our middle class and it''s *** near gone now. Even small time stock investors are getting screwed more now since all the deregulation over the last 30 years. We can''t be run by our government and our government SHOULDN''T own business but the more the government doesn''t watch anything and just lets corperate america screw our country the more corrupt it will become. Bush let a bunch of Corperations write a bill that basically let''s them decide what they have to do to operate and be within enviormental guidelines. Gee, I''m sure they''ll work really hard on on not polluting everything now.

[ausus-2009]

mbuhroo,

Look at your history. American jobs started going overseas during the Kennedy-Johnson years. For some reason the Democrats thought that it was better that foreigners owned some of our iconic brands rather than American companies. The classic example is All detergent. Invented by Monsanto, LBJ forced it to be sold to the British-Dutch Unilever. Fortunately, it is now back in American hands.

On another subject, look at American candies and soft drinks, they are almost all now owned by the British Cadbury-Schweppes or the Swiss Nestle. These products are still mostly manufactured in the US but foreign owned. This is not a case of being manufactured cheaper outside of the US.

About privatized energy - wasn''t PG & E always a stock exchange listed company? When did the government own it?

[mbuhroo]

I''ve never believed in Republican economics. I look at the history of our planet and whenever things were left to the mega rich or corperations they don''t "trickle down" they just want more. Greed is unfortunaly part of human nature. Without goverment watching and regulating the rich just cut the rest of society. The current crisis was created by deregulation followed by shortsighted greed. They privatized energy and look what happened. All these things happened under republican watch. Bush did nothing while corperate america sent all our manufacturing jobs over seas. They claim they couldn''t afford our wages but the american executive is by miles the highest paid in the world. I think exxons ceo took over $400,000,000!!

[Hartru]

As a retired high school math teacher, I can only draw one conclusion from the comments written here: The Republicans have truly succeeded in their goal of "DUMBING DOWN AMERICA." Their loyal supporters are so hopelessly ignorant that they cannot spell, they cannot write a complete sentence and they do not know enough to support their new President for their own good and the good of the country they claim to love so much. These are the SAME people that the elite Republican power machine has robbed of thought -- and now these losers are to stupid to know they''''ve been had by their own Party!

Listen, you nitwits, you''''re going to get a New Deal whether you want one or not. Try to be grown up enough to support your country.

Posted by debbieqd at 07:03 PM : Dec 14, 2008
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Absolutely true!! "Cool" is so much more important in our culture than smarts.
The anti-intellectual streak we have just may ultimately be our undoing as a culture.

[ausus-2009]

Having read extensively about FDR and the Depression, I often wonder if a less socialistic approach would have ended it earlier. After all, FDR took power at the beginning of 1933 and the Depression was still going in late 1941 when the US entered World War II. FDR''s policies killed the recovery of 1936 with the crash of 1937. When there was a large drop in Wall Street recently, it was stated that this was the biggest drop since 1937.

[kane1559]

What a ridiculous article. There was a centrally planned economy once, it was called the Soviet Union. Some of my fellow posters yearn for the soviet/european model but neglect to mention the number of jobs created in the US vs Europe over the past thirty years. Unemployment is inching higher here, but has averaged 6.5% here vs Eurolands 11% over the past 30 years.

[emanuelspeak]

Momma said do not buy snake oil from the new administration.
But they did!

[kane1559]

What a ridiculous article. There was a centrally planned economy once, it was called the Soviet Union. Some of my fellow posters yearn for the soviet/european model but neglect to mention the number of jobs created in the US vs Europe over the past thirty years. Unemployment is inching higher here, but has averaged 6.5% here vs Eurolands 11% over the past 30 years.