Historical note:

When FDR came into office in the midst of the Depression (Wall Street had gone berserk, people jumping out office windows, banks were failing right and left, and the unemployment rate was at 25%), he lassoed and hog-tied the miscreants who had brought the country to its knees by starting the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee Wall Street, bringing a quick halt to the multitudes of ongoing Ponzi schemes, stepped on the necks of the bankers, not by giving them massive bail-outs, but by initiating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation so that if the banks failed again through another attack of stupidity and greed, the depositors would not lose their money—and he instituted a number of agencies such as the Works Projects Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps to put people directly back to work, on needed infrastructure such as roads, bridges, national park preservation and improvement, and big projects such as power dams (TVA). These so-called (by the Republicans) "make-work" jobs accomplished a great deal. As said, the infrastructure was much needed, and it gave paychecks to the very people (the previously unemployed) who HAD to turn around and spend it right away on such things as food and rent, thus returning it to the economy immediately.

Deficit spending? Yes, in a VERY big way. BUT—it ended the Depression, put the economy on an even keel, and started paying down the deficit.

Conservatives hated Roosevelt's guts because THEIR orgy was over, and they couldn't say enough bad about him. And they're still doing it, some even trying to claim that he ended the Depression by getting us into World War II. Not so! The Depression was over well before December 7, 1941.

Yes, Conservatives hated him. And STILL do. But the people loved him, because he wasn't just making a lot of promises, he was actually, tangibly helping them, AND the whole country. They voted him back into office for three more terms.

Which, after Roosevelt died in office during his fourth term, prompted the Republicans to enter a bill limiting presidential terms to no more than two. (Which, perhaps, was not a bad idea; consider the possibility of, say, George W. Bush for four terms!!)

Reagan managed to fulfill a longtime dream of the Republicans, Conservatives, Right-Wingers, and Ayn Randers by dismantling all the regulatory agencies that FDR instituted, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and others that oversaw Wall Street's machinations and kept the economy pretty well on track until the last decade or so.

And look where it finally got us!

Mr. Roosevelt, we need you again.

Don Firth