Great Depression
Is the New Deal a Good Deal?
Let’s look at a few
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
 provided jobs building dams on Tennessee River, regional help
Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Provided help getting mortgages so people could buy homes
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Guarantees bank deposits
Let’s look at a few
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Initially paid farmers to grow less
Finally, gov’t bought surplus and stored for later
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
President could make rules for businesses operating within a state
Social Security Act
Gov’t provides funds for unemployed, older folks, and needy
First time people are dependent on gov’t for help
Problems
• Do any of these sound like problems?
• Anything that is unconstitutional?
Not everybody liked the New Deal
• Conservatives
• feared that gov’t was getting too involved in business – worried
about free-enterprise
• Supreme Court ruled against some
• Agricultural Adjustment Act
• Court said it was not in the federal gov’t power
• Cited the 10th Amendment
• National Industrial Recovery Act
• Schechter Poultry v US – court ruled crisis doesn’t give president
extra powers
FDR
• Not happy with what the Supreme Court is ruling?
• Just add more justices that you like….
• Court Packing Scheme
• FDR proposed that we should appoint more supreme court judges for anyone
over 70 ½ years old
• He would have been able to appoint 6 “like-minded” judges
• It didn’t happen
FDR Forever?
• Many people liked him
• He was elected to a 4th term, but died shortly after inauguration
• Conservatives had become concerned that he was becoming too
powerful
• After his 4 election, the 22nd Amendment was passed
• Limiting president to 2 terms