FDR's New Deal Blueprint For Obama

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/14/sunday/main4667688.shtml

How The Revolutionary WPA Jobs Program Helped Move A Nation Mired In Depression And Redefined The American Worker

Dec. 14, 2008

(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:
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."


(AP Photo )

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."


FULL story at link.

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