Roosevelt's New Deal

13 Pages 3128 Words

n. The American public desperately needed so!
meone to guide them through the most economically debilitating period in history. They were looking for someone with a plan that would help kick start the economy and bring prosperity back to the masses.
The gravity of the Great depression called for governmental reforms and programs to protect and maintain the general welfare of its citizens. Franklin Roosevelt utilized a committee of people from differing points of view to aid in his legislative ideas. This committee, called the Brain Trust, disagreed and argued over many of the policies implemented during the New Deal era. This conflict was probably as helpful as it was harmful to the decision-making processes needed for instituting the programs and organizations introduced in the following years. The New Deal would bring about a new beginning in public welfare by setting up the framework for a welfare state, which is still in existence today. The New Deal program is usually divided into three periods. The first phase (1933–34) attempted to provide recovery and relief from the Great Depression through programs of agricultural and business regulation, inflation, price stabilization, and public works (New Deal 1993). Fortunately for Roosevelt, the Democratic Party held the majority in Congress. This allowed Franklin Roosevelt to churn out legislation with almost no resistance. On his second day in office, FDR called for a special session of Congress which would ultimately establish numerous emergency organizations, notably the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which attempted to stabilize prices and wages through cooperation between the government, business, and labor, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which used various means to rebuild trust in banking, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which aided farmers through compensation, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Public Works Administration;...