1. The New Deal Continues
Chapter 23 Section 3 and 4

2. Challenges to the New Deal
FDR used deficit spending – borrowed money to pay for his New Deal programs
Many people felt that FDR had gone too far in his programs expanding the federal govts. power at the expense of the states’ power

3. Launching the Second New Deal
WPA – Works Progress Administration – work relief and to increase employment
Constructed highways, roads, streets, public buildings, etc
Federal Number One – most controversial program in the WPA
Offered work to artists, musicians, theater people, and writers

4. Rise of Unions National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)
Guaranteed workers the right to organize unions w/o interference from employers
Ability to bargain collectively
This act set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

5. Rise of Unions 2
NLRB
Secret ballot elections to determine whether workers wanted a union
Certified the successful unions
Allowed dissatisfied union members to take their complaints to binding arbitration
Authorized to investigate the actions of employers
Had the power to issue “cease and desist” orders against unfair practices

6. The Social Security Act
Provide security for the elderly and for unemployed workers
Workers earned the right to receive benefits b/c they paid premiums
Welfare payments to needy people, those w/ disabilities and poor families w/ young dependent children
Monthly retirement benefit – people can collect when they stop working at age 65

7. Social Security (1935)
14 August – SOCIAL SECURITY ACT – Unemployment compensation; survivor’s insurance; old-age pensions; relief for blind, homeless, crippled, etc. Payments were $10-40 per month.
The single most important feature of the New Deal’s emerging welfare state was Social Security. An ambitious, far-reaching, and permanent reform, Social Security was designed to provide a modest income to relieve the poverty of elderly people. Only about 15% of older Americans had private pension plans, and during the depression corporations and banks often failed to pay the meager pensions they had promised. Prompted by the popular but impractical Dr. Francis Townsend, Father Coughlin, and Huey Long, Roosevelt became the first president to advocate protection for the elderly.
The political struggle for Social Security highlighted class differences among Americans. Support for the measure came from a coalition of advocacy groups for the elderly and the poor, traditional progressives, leftists, social workers, and labor unions. Arrayed against them were economic conservatives, including the Liberty League, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce, and the American Medical Association. Enact the Social Security system, these conservatives and their representatives in the Republican Party warned, and the government will gain a hand over private property, destroy initiative, and reduce proud individuals to spineless loafers.
The large New Deal majority in Congress carried the day in August Yet the strong objections to federal involvement in matters traditionally left to individuals and local charities persuaded the framers of Social Security to strike an awkward balance among federal, state, and personal responsibility. The Social Security Act required that pensions for the elderly be funded not by direct government subsidies but instead by tax contributions from workers and their employers. Although this provision subtracted money from consumption – hindering economic recovery- it gave contributing workers a personal stake in the system and made it politically invulnerable. Social Security also created unemployment insurance, paid for by employers’ contributions, that provided modest benefits for workers who lost their jobs. In a bow to traditional beliefs about local governments’ responsibility for public assistance, Social Security also issued multi-million-dollar grants to the states to use to support dependent mothers and children, public health services, and the blind, providing desperately needed relief. After a Supreme Court decision in 1937 upheld the right of Congress to require all citizens to pay for Social Security through federal taxes, the program was expanded to include benefits for dependent survivors of deceased recipients. Although the first Social Security check (for $41.30) was not issued until 1940, the system gave working people assurance that in the future, when they became too old to work, they would receive income from the government.

8. Legacy of the New Deal Increased federal power over the economy
Established the broker state – working out conflicts among different interests
This broker role has continued under the administration of both parties ever since

9. Legacy 2 The New Deal brought a new public attitude toward govt.
The programs had created a safety net for the average American
People b/g to expect this of the govt. although it required a larger and more expensive federal govt. than ever b/f

10. One room school house in Scottsboro, Alabama

11. Election of 1936 Alfred “Alf” Landon F.D.R. Republican
Democratic Incumbent

12. The following points are relevant…
1. Roosevelt had no coherent blueprint for what he wanted to do. He was willing to experiment, to bend his own Constitutional authority and to flatter congress.
2. The New Deal did not end the Depression. The massive government spending during World War II was what finally revived the economy.
3. During Roosevelt’s administration, voting patterns shifted dramatically. Blacks shifted from voting about 80% Republican to 80% Democratic.

13. It was not until the government spent huge amounts of money financing World War II that the last lingering effects of the Depression disappeared.
However, regardless of its successes or failures, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal Administration changed the nature of American government permanently.