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The New Deal

An FDR campaigning button

Franklin D. Roosevelt's first New Deal started with his Hundred Days. During these first hundred days of his administration he brought about many new laws and a large portion of his first New Deal were created in this time frame. Roosevelt's first hundred days were so productive that every president since has been analyzed and compared to Roosevelt's accomplishments. There were three goals of FDR's New Deal, the three R's of providing relief to the general public, help to recover the economy, and to provide reform to existing problems that caused the depression in order to prevent another depression from happening.

Relief was the most urgent matter of the first New Deal. It provided immediate help to the top third of people hit hardest by the Great Depression, as well as temporary assistance to the unemployed. Roosevelt's plans of relief mostly were composed of "priming the pump" economics; spending government money on helping the people in hopes that they would in turn use this new money to stimulate the economy. One such work was the Public Works Administration, which exploded the construction of public facilities like schools, hospitals, or airports. About 4 billion dollars was spent on this program providing jobs to construction workers, as well as the people who worked in these public facilities.

Recovery was the next goal of the New Deal in order to get the economy out of the turmoil it fell into. Programs like the Federal Housing Administration helped those who couldn't afford houses. Before this program, mortgages were only 5 to 10 years and had huge interest rates resulting in only 4 in 10 Americans owning a house. The FHA allowed access to 30 year mortgages which opened up the housing market for most Americans.

Reform was the longest lasting of these goals as many of these reform programs are still in use today. Programs like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were aimed towards preventing collapse banks. Under the FDIC, the federal government guaranteed that every account would be insured to receive up to $5,000, even if the bank fell under. This program is still in affect today and the limit has been extended to up to $100,000.

The New Deal also produced a huge political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933 to 1969), with its base in liberal ideas, the white South, traditional Democrats, big city machines, and the newly empowered labor unions and ethnic minorities. The Republicans were split, with conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, and liberals accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient.

Videos:

__Crash Course on FDR's New Deal__

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__Impacts of the New Deal (long)__ media type="custom" key="25785420" align="left"

Additional information on the New Deal: List of New Deal programs More about the New Deal